The probate service says it continues to make progress on outstanding cases after its recovery plan has seen open cases reduced by 37%.
In the latest family court statistics published this week, there were 39,104 total open probate cases at the end of June 2025, down from 61,992 at the end of June 2024 and as a direct result of efforts to upskill staff to tackle the open caseload. 32,133 of the open cases (c.82%) at the end of March 2025 had been open for less than six months. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said the majority of the open caseload is for probate grants (63%), with letters of administration (28%) and letters of administration with a will annexed (9%) making up the reminder.
The result of which is the Probate Office says it is turning around probate grants more quickly than ever; and three weeks quicker than the same quarter in 2024. Probate grants took approximately 5 weeks to be issued after the application was submitted during April to June 2025. Letters of administration with a will and without a will took around 19 and 8 weeks respectively
Today’s Wills and Probate reported last week the move to digital applications was having a positive impact on turnaround times. In April to June 2025, there were 62,943 applications for probate grants. 60,620 probate grants were issued in the same period. 92% of both applications and 93% of these grants issued were made digitally. The same proportion of the 79,299 applications for grants of representation were made digitally between April to June 2025. The average time from application submission to grant issue for probate grants was 5 weeks overall; the lowest since the MoJ began reporting on turnaround times.
Whilst the mean average time for the majority of grants (that is digital probate grants for applications not stopped which formed 72% of total probate grants issued) took approximately 2 weeks from application submission to grant issue and 1 week from document receipt to grant issue.
The Office of the Public Guardian reported a fall in the number of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) registered. Having peaked in 2024, between April and June 2025, there were 292,608 LPAs registered, down 23% compared to the equivalent quarter the previous year. 56% of Powers of Attorney (POA) registered were from female donors, 42% were from male donors and 47% were over 75 years old.
Registrations for LPAs have tracked upwards since 2014, with a fall during COVID, before quickly increasing again in the years since. An increase during 2015 and 2016 was largely due to increased publicity and the new online forms introduced in July 2015 making it simpler and faster to apply said the MoJ; but they offer no explanation for the downturn in the months since the peak in the second and third quarter of 2024. 
