Written evidence submitted by Miss Laura Brown (PRO0071)

I have been working in private client law for approximately 20 years and specialise in Probate.  During that time there have been numerous changes, some for the better but sadly mostly for the worse.

Covid has been consistently blamed for the recent failures in the Probate Service.  However, the original problem was created by the move to close the regional Probate Registries and move the service to Harlow which has resulted in blockages in the system largely being caused by inexperience and understaffing.  Covid compounded the issues due to the lack of IT resources in the Registry.   Whereas prior to the changes we would expect to have a Grant issued in approximately 2 weeks from our preferred local registry we are now being told to expect 16 weeks.  Given that we are doing the inputting into the system for you this is ridiculous.  The lack of updates available cause additional stress and upset to our clients – even if you do manage to speak to someone on the phone they are only a call handler and can’t help (and in a lot of cases couldn’t care less about the call).

Understaffing and lack of motivation (it must be demoralising to be consistently providing such a poor service) seems to be the root cause of the problems at the Probate Registry.  More training and more staff are required.  With an aging population the pressures are not going to decrease.  Also make more types of Grant available on MyHMCTS rather than having to use the poorly designed PA1A/PA1P forms.  If the Probate Registry (or indeed any other government department) had to actually function as a business they would fail very quickly.  They need to learn to work efficiently and accurately.

Stops are occasionally justified but often they are due to someone misreading the Will/application.  Also, there is no notification received to tell the practitioner that an application has been stopped so we often cannot step in to try and rectify matters. 

The impact of delays is massive both financially and emotionally for the family of the deceased.

The fact that we can now see documents attached to the case is welcome and gives some comfort that documents such as the Will have not been lost in the post.

The new code in place of the IHT421 is again a step forward although the decision not to allow us to prepare the legal statement until we have received the code is a step backwards – there is no reason for this and it will increase delays – most practitioners would get the Legal Statement and IHT400 signed at the same time (as is logical) and hold the Legal Statement until it can be submitted.  The code should be entered along with the payment method at the end of the process to streamline the system.

January 2024