Sackman: Going digital has made big difference
The Probate Service seems to have finally overcome its backlog, with average wait times in December 2024 now six and half weeks, compared to nearly 16 weeks a year earlier – 60% lower.
November 2023 saw the time from submission to grant issue hit a record 15.8 weeks, and 13.9 weeks from document upload to grant.
They have fallen significantly since and, in newly released figures for December 2024, the figures were 6.4 and 4.2 weeks respectively.
These statistics combine both digital and paper-based applications – 80% are now digital.
From digital submission to grant takes an average of 4.8 weeks, and 14.6 weeks for paper submissions.
The wait from document upload to grant for digital applications where there are no issues is now just a couple of days.
The service’s backlog has reduced by over 50,000 cases since August 2023, with grants outnumbering receipts in every month of 2024. July 2024 was the busiest month, with 27,828 new applications for probate and 32,002 grants.
The average number of monthly grants issued in 2024 was 27,400, a 20% increase compared to the previous year, leaving the number of outstanding cases at its lowest point since early 2023, when the data was first published.
The previous government sought to address the delays by improving “recruitment, competency, productivity and call handling”, with then justice minister Mike Freer noting that 2023 saw the largest volume of probate applications received by the service since 2006.
The justice select committee heard last spring that law firms were suffering a backlash from clients, and increasing unbillable time, as a result of the delays, while they had left some clients feeling suicidal because they were running out of money.
In a celebratory press release on Friday, courts and legal services minister Sarah Sackman said: “We know that handling probate can be tough for families at a difficult period in their lives. That is why so we’ve worked hard to reduce delays and make the process easier.
“By cutting wait times and going digital, we’re ensuring people receive the support they need quickly at what can be a challenging time.”
The Institute of Legacy Management has been closely monitoring the delays and its chair, James Stebbings, said: “We are delighted to see that HMCTS have reduced probate application processing times to where they were five years ago.
“Each year the public leave charities £4bn of gifts in their wills and the relief in the charity sector that this income is flowing again is huge.
“On behalf of the charity sector and all who benefit from it, we would like to say a huge thank you.”
However, Suzanne Mynors, a partner at London law firm Russell-Cooke, said the figures “somewhat smack of rose-tinted spectacles”.
She explained: “There are fundamental issues with, and ongoing delays in, the probate system which are apparent to anyone working in the sector or who scratches below the surface… There are still cases which have been outstanding for over a year.
“It is the complex applications which must still be made on paper and sent in hard copy to the Probate Registry in Newcastle to be processed. They take double, if not triple, the length of time to be issued, in comparison with the digital applications.”
This was due to the lack of qualified staff at district registries, she suggested, leaving complex cases to be reviewed “by the very few registrars now based at the centralised registry”.
By their very nature, complex cases were “often more heart breaking”, Ms Mynors added, while even simple cases were not back to “pre-digital, pre-Covid, pre-centralisation of the Probate Registry times”, when a grant was usually issued within 10 days to two weeks of making the application.
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