Charity representatives have raised concerns about the speed of probate claims in the aftermath of the pandemic. HMRC approached HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) for an update which is shared below. This includes details of a webinar on 15 November 2022, at 13.00.

• As with many organisations we were impacted by the COVID19 pandemic. We have continued to operate, and increased grants of probate made. In 2019 we granted 237,719 applications, in 2020 256,707 and in 2021 we granted 273,422. This has been at a time of increased applications being received.

• Year on year we have seen an increase in probate applications. 2019 saw 269,343 applications submitted, followed by 273,179 in 2020 and 282,651 in 2021. We also saw a higher proportion of Intestacy applications through the pandemic. We also saw the percentage of people who needed to apply for probate reduce to 37% in the pandemic, they returned to pre COVID levels of 50% recently.

• Our probate service user group includes representatives from the charity sector including the Institute of Legacy Management and Remember a Charity. We work closely with both organisations to share insight and help the sector plan its activities.

• We will be holding a webinar for members of the charity sector where we will provide our annual update on the probate service. Members of the sector are welcome to register and join the event.

• Probate data is published on a quarterly basis and is available on GOV.UK. Current figures are available to June 2022.