There has been a decline in probate delays with applications taking on average 9.3 weeks to process in July 2024, compared to 14 weeks in the same month last year.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service published its monthly management information on probate applications which revealed a higher number had been processed than the same month last year.
According to the data, 32,002 applications had been processed in July 2024 compared to 22,922 in July 2023.
There has also been a steady increase in the number of probate applications being issued digitally, increasing from 18,841 in July 23 to 26,877 in July 2024.
The data showed the number of weeks it took to process a digital application that had been stopped for whatever reason had also decreased from 20.9 weeks in July 2023 to 15.5 in the same month this year.
For paper applications, the total number processed has also risen in the past year from 4,081 in July 2023 to 5,125 in 2024.
Although a decline in probate delays shows “promising momentum” in improving the probate process, “more needs to be done” according to the Law Society of England and Wales.
Nick Emmerson, president of Law Society, said: “New statistics show HMCTS has issued more probate applications each month than it has received, allowing for a decline in outstanding caseload. The timeliness of processing these applications has improved and must continue improving.
“It is also reassuring that HMCTS is incorporating the recommendations we made to the Justice Select Committee’s inquiry into the probate service, such as the ability to track paper applications online, build staff capability and reduce the number of stopped applications.”
Jo Summers, spokesperson for STEP, the professional body for inheritance advisers, said action was still needed.
“There is still a significant backlog of open cases that needs to be sorted. There is also a large discrepancy between the service for ‘standard’ online probate applications and more complex applications that have to be done on paper,” she added.
alina.khan@ft.com
