Probate: More than 80% of applications are now digital
The Probate Service has now been issuing more grants per month than the number of applications it receives for a year, with delays now falling, new figures have shown.
Practitioners have welcomed the improvements but warned there is still more to do.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) statistics show that it processed 32,002 probate applications in July 2024, nearly 9,000 more than a year earlier, and received 27,807 in the month – both are the highest figures of the last 12 months.
An application took an average of 9.3 weeks to process in July 2024, down from a peak of 15.8 weeks in November 2023.
Digital applications are on average taking 7.5 weeks from submission to grant (and only 3.4 weeks when the application is not stopped for some reason), compared to 18.4 weeks when on paper (12.3 weeks for those not stopped); some 19% of applications in July 2024 were on paper.
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: “The decrease in probate delays is promising, but more should be done. Delays to the probate service can be devastating for families and loved ones during their time of grief.
“The steps HMCTS has taken to address the issue of probate delays have largely come about through its regular engagement with our probate professional user group. We are pleased to see that HMCTS has responded to the group’s feedback.”
Jo Summers, STEP’s representative on the group, reported that HMCTS told the most recent meeting earlier this month that it intended to reduce wait times further.
The group heard that the number of applications stopped due to inheritance tax issues has reduced dramatically since HM Revenue & Customs introduced the code system in January, whereby the probate applicant receives a code to use in their probate application, which confirms the IHT400 form has been submitted and processed.
This has meant that more staff could work on issuing probate grants and HMRC was expected to begin this week emailing these codes to people, instead of sending them by post.
Ms Summers added: “HMCTS’s next priority is to tackle the next biggest reason applications are stopped, which is when the named executors have not all been accounted for.”
HMCTS is also planning to expand the number of online intestacy applications, focusing on the simple ones (e.g. when siblings inherit), but does not intend to make ‘international’ applications online – although there will be online tracking.
Asked in Parliament what steps the Ministry of Justice was taking to reduce the Probate Service backlog, justice minister Heidi Alexander replied earlier this month: “HM Courts & Tribunals Service has invested in more staff, alongside system and process improvements, which has seen record levels of grants of probate issued during the last six months.
“Management information published by HMCTS shows, despite continued high levels of receipts, the open workable caseload (cases not waiting for more information from the applicant) has reduced by over 50% (36,000 cases) since August 2023 and currently stands at 31,842 in June 2024.”
- HMCTS has created a new email address for advisors who have a case that is older than 20 weeks and are struggling to secure progress: NSfamilybmt@justice.gov.uk. It will arrange a surgery appointment to progress the application.
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