The fee for obtaining copies of probate grants, wills or letters of administration will increase from £1.50 to £16 per copy on 17th November 2025. The increase applies to all copy requests, including copies ordered at the time of applying for the grant and any subsequent requests after the grant has been issued.
Amendments under The Court and Public Guardian Fees (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2025, which supersede The Non-Contentious Probate Fees Order 2004 will see the fee increase by nearly 1000%. For paper applications prepared before the change but received after 17th November, the new fee will apply from the date of receipt.
In August the Ministry of Justice announced fees for registering Lasting Powers of Attorney would increase from £82 per LPA application to £92 from 17th November 2025. It also confirmed the repeat application fee which is currently £41 will increase to £46.
It has now been confirmed the copy fee for probate grants and wills is part of the fee updates. Explaining the increase, the MoJ said fees are charged on the basis of cost recovery in an explanatory memorandum accompanying the legislation.
“The estimated cost to HMCTS of providing single copies of documents under the Find a Will service equates to £16 per copy. The £1.50 fee therefore significantly underrecovers its cost, despite fees being set with the intention of full cost recovery. This statutory instrument will therefore increase the fee for users to obtain copies of documents within the Principal Registry of the Family Division, district registries and any sub-registries attached, which includes the “Find a Will” service and individual users requesting extra copies of probate grants from £1.50 to £16, to align more closely with its costs and ensure that HMCTS can continue to deliver its services effectively. A new fee for bulk access will be implemented in a subsequent instrument.”
Reduced in 2019, the £1.50 fee for obtaining copies of probate grants and wills was set at a rate below cost added the ministry, ‘in line with Managing Public Money principles, we are now increasing the fee to £16 to ensure it is closer to cost recovery.’
A statement released from a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said:
“We are speeding up probate, recruiting more court staff and investing in digital services to streamline the process.”
“The fee increase reflects the true cost of the service and means we can focus taxpayers’ money on improving other parts of the under-pressure court system.”
22 responses
Outrageous
Major, major blow to genealogists. Copies of wills are a major contributor to genealogical research. This increase will very seriously set back research for many who will simply not be able to afford these new costs.
That’s an obscene increase in cost! £1.50 to £16 in one fell swoop, and kept very quiet too! I subscribe to several genealogy newsletters, and only one has just picked this up as far as I and others I know have noticed. I also had to do a fair bit of Googling to find it mentioned anywhere else. A huge blow to genealogists as these are so important to genealogical research and most amateur genealogists will be priced out by this. Outrageous indeed!
I agree with earlier comments. A huge blow to family historians, many of whom are pensioners. Such an excessive price rise really is outrageous. Why was the digital will fee reduced in the first place if the fee wasn’t covering the cost? Yet another hit from Rachel Reeves?
How does it cost £16 for an additional piece of paper with a seal on it 🤔
Disgraceful
The cost for them is £16 to provide copies? I order these for work all the time and relatively recent ones are available immediately which means their system is automated. This is therefore not costing them £16! Maybe raise the fees if it’s a historic one?
You’re right of course. How can one electronic download cost them £16??? Surely it costs them nothing!
Is this some sort of joke?? This government makes me sick to the core
For one piece of paper 😤
Outrageous
Surely this measure will be self defeating as far less copies will be purchased at the new price….certainly by me!
I can understand this for requesting historic copies sealed and/or certified to some extent. However. to charge £16 per additional copy of a grant at the point of application is outrageous.
I think the rise is unreasonable in one step, and without warning. However, it isn’t unreasonable to provide value to the tax payer. All systems need to be overhauled with this view in mind. I use the Land Registry for property Title searches which increased from £3 to £7. This again is a significant increase, particularly when the new didgital portal feels more antiquated than the old i.e. the number of clicks to obtain a title search increased as much as the cost! Systems should be simplified, not made more complex. I am all for value for the taxpayer, as long as the money is reinvested.
Another stealth tax from Rachel Thieves. Totally outrageous and unfair
Outrageous increase, many family historians won’t be able to afford this.
Re Ed Liddell comment. Couldn’t agree more. Last year I paid standard price for Death Cert from Registrar. I asked for 5 further copies at the same time. The Registrar simply changed number of copies required from 1 to 6 ( 2 or 3 seconds) then I was charged a further £11.00 per additional copy (£55.00). All 6 copies were printed off in 30 seconds. Allowing for printing costs ( paper, ink etc) a Registrar’s hourly rate must be astronomical!!
Outrageous. Only just found out from a family history email. Historic wills help sort out family relationships. £16 is a big jump and i certainly will be ordering less. But this is a bit similar to the fact that you have to pay £12.50 for a marriage cert but for deaths/births within certain years you can get a digital copy for £3
I think this increase is a bloody disgrace! As a keen amateur family history researcher and a pensioner this has come as a real body blow!
It’s not as if a human has to go through files to find the correct information it sometimes take 30minutes to receive a copy.
Just another Government attempt to fleece us!
This is really disappinting news. I am an amateur, researching my own family history, and I simply cannot justify spending £16 a time. Wills and Probate have been such a useful resource to me, either helping to confirm a line of thinking, or to provide new information, or both. I have five outstanding orders and I trust they will be honoured at the total of £7.50 paid, not a new charge of £80. £80 for crying out loud!
I expect there will be a significant increase in the proportion of truncated and/or plain wrong family trees in the future. OK, the wealthy can just crack on, but it isn’t an option for me. I’m so annoyed at this.
As a genealogist, I have over the years collected about 900 wills, at a cost of around £1,300. I’m certainly not paying out £14,400 for another 900! The inevitable outcome of this is their trade will drop considerably, price will have to rise again and the only sales will be to lawyers who pass on the cost to their clients. And this on top of the fact the service has been apallingly slow the last few weeks. More to this than is yet out on top.
This is a ridiculous increase from £1.50 to £16. This is an automated system requiring no human intervention so the real cost is negligible. It will stop many family history researchers in their tracks.
These are all scanned archives, surely? There isn’t an office working spending an hour searching through physical boxes for a requested will, is there? The last two I ordered were in my inbox within minutes. £16 for an email now! Crackers. I won’t be using this service further. It was a useful trove on genealogical information, but no longer affordable.