Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 2 March 2022.
Steve Reed
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many estates granted probate after waiting more than (a) 6, (b) 9 and (c) 12 months.
Tom Pursglove
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice and Home Office)
Despite the unprecedented challenges faced by the probate service during the Covid 19 pandemic, and as a result of HMCTS increasing resources to meet demand, the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of the documents required is between five and seven weeks.
Some applications do take longer than this for a variety of reasons and this includes applications which have been stopped due to missing documentation or errors on the form. There can also be considerable delay in issuing a grant where an interested party raises a concern and asks the court to stay the application until that issue can be resolved.
Probate grants1 issued in 20206, and those taking longer than 6, 9 and 12 months, England and Wales2 | ||||
From submission | Probate grants issued | |||
Total Probate grants issued3 | 209,945 | |||
Of total grants issued, those where the time to issue was: | ||||
6-9 months4 | 3,107 | |||
9-12 months5 | 914 | |||
More than 12 months | 912 | |||
Source: | ||
HMCTS Core Case Data | ||
Notes: | ||
1) Probate grants only. Excludes letters of administration with/without a Will | ||
2) The timeliness figures are produced by calculating the time from the date of application (which may be from an earlier period) to the date the grant was issued. This data includes those cases stopped for missing information or documentation and those stayed due to a caveat being entered by an interested party. | ||
3) Due to revisions this figure may differ slightly to those published in Family Court Statistics Quarterly | ||
4) Includes cases greater than 6 months and those up to and including 9 months | ||
5) Includes cases greater than 9 months and those up to and including 12 months 6) We have used data from 2020 to show a full calendar year | ||
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