| answer text |
<p>Average waiting times for probate grants, from July 2019 to September 2021, are
published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 25): https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.</p><p>
</p><p>Information covering up to December 2021 will be published on 31 March.</p><p>
</p><p>More recent management information published by HMCTS (which does not go through
the same level of quality assurance and analysis as the Family Court Statistics Quarterly)
provides waiting time information up to December 2021. See: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-management-information-december-2021.</p><p>
</p><p>The improvement of the online probate system remains a priority for HMCTS to
ensure more applications can be issued first time and resources can be focused on
reducing waiting times. HMCTS continues to collaborate with its users to enhance the
service and the latest information on this can be found at: https://insidehmcts.blog.gov.uk/2022/02/28/working-together-to-avoid-delays-to-probate-applications/
(opens in a new tab).</p><p>Prior to 2019, applicants had to travel to town centre
locations to swear an oath before a court officer or a commissioner for oaths. This
could involve multiple visits as any issues with the application were largely dealt
with before the application was submitted to the court. Reforms in 2019 saw this process
replaced with statements of truth, removing the burden of travelling to swear an oath,
and enabling applicants to apply online from the comfort of their own home. This change
in process means the point systems recording the start of waiting times fundamentally
changed and therefore comparable waiting time data over the last five years is not
available.</p>
|
|
