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<p>The number of probate cases that have been awaiting a decision for seven weeks
or more is 9125 (December 2022).</p><p> </p><p>The number of unassessed probate cases
for which evidence has been received that were awaiting a decision for longer than
six weeks is in the table below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Unassessed
over 6<sup>2</sup> Weeks</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-22</p></td><td><p>4,419</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-22</p></td><td><p>6,090</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-22</p></td><td><p>8,067</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Oct-22</p></td><td><p>8,331</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-22</p></td><td><p>8,901</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dec-22</p></td><td><p>9,873</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>1 The administration of probate applications is dealt with as a national service,
covering England and Wales. The open caseload excludes cases older than 6 months.</p><p>2
The time outstanding is counted from the application submission date recorded in the
case management system, except for digital applications with a Will, where the date
of receipt of the original Will by HMCTS is used.</p><p> </p><p>Since October 22 we
have increased staffing resources in Probate by 42%, an increase of 75 staff after
taking account of attrition, recruiting into Probate an additional 100 staff. Following
a period of extensive training those additional staff are now being used bring down
the overall timeliness on digital and paper applications and improve call handling
times.</p>
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