Written question asked by Siân Berry (Green Party) on Wednesday, 8 July 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 13 July 2026. It was answered by Catherine Atkinson (Labour) on Friday, 17 July 2026 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.
Probate: Standards
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he made of the reasons for the increase in probate processing times.
- Answer
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The Ministry of Justice publish regular data on probate timeliness and open caseload in our quarterly family court statistics bulletin Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK. According to the published data in the Family Court Statistics Quarterly, the overall timeliness (both mean weeks and median weeks) has remained stable since Q1 of 2025 to the most recently published Q1 of 2026. There has been an improvement in the timeliness (both mean weeks and median weeks) from the figures in 2024. The published data shows that timeliness figures vary between case types, whether it is a paper or a digital application, whether the case has had to be stopped to request further information.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service have invested in more staff in 2026, alongside system, process improvements and a programme of upskilling to improve the processing time for applications and maintain the low level of outstanding caseload.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 17208
- Session
- 2026-27
- Subjects
- Probate Standards
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-07-17 15:07:41 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/17208
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