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Written question asked by Bobby Dean (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 29 August 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 2 September 2025. It was answered by Alex Davies-Jones (Labour) on Monday, 8 September 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Probate Service: Staff

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many District Probate (a) Registrars and (b) Deputy Registrars are employed; and whether there are vacancies in those roles.

Answer

The Ministry of Justice publishes average waiting times for processing grants of probate here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) currently advises applicants to expect probate applications to be processed within the target time of 12 weeks, although this could take longer if a user needs to provide additional information. Currently, the average waiting time is under 5 weeks.

There are 1.2 FTE Registrars and 2 FTE Deputy Registrars currently in post. There are no vacancies, and capacity is sufficient to meet the requirement for these roles.

One of the main lessons learned following the Reform of the probate service in 2019 was that the centralisation of administrative work alongside the digitisation of the service led to the loss of experienced staff and a training gap for the staff in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres. These issues have since been overcome and average processing times continue to improve.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
73049
Session
2024-26
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Staff Vacancies Probate Service
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk