Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to respond to the consultation on the storage and retention of wills and other documents submitted in applications for probate which closed on 23 February; and what steps they have taken to ensure that no such documents have been destroyed in the meantime.

The response to the consultation will be published shortly.

No wills or other defined documents have been destroyed. The consultation sought views on changes to modernise the storage of documents submitted in applications for probate. If the Government did decide to proceed with the proposal in the consultation no documents would be destroyed without Parliament agreeing to legislative changes.