Recent figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service show that the waiting time for grants of probate has remained steady for several months, following delays in processing probate applications in recent years.

The average time from submission of a probate application to probate being granted was 6.3 weeks in April 2025. This was identical to the figure for March and a slight increase from 6.2 weeks in January and February. It represents a significant improvement on the average waiting time of 15.8 weeks in November 2023, the month in which the Justice Committee launched an inquiry into probate following concerns over the time being taken to process applications.

A total of 26,883 applications for a grant of probate were made in April 2025 and 23,622 grants were issued. There were 21,012 digital applications, making up more than 78 per cent of the total. The average waiting time for digital applications was 4.9 weeks from submission to grant of probate, and 2.9 weeks from upload of documents to grant of probate. Paper applications saw an average waiting time of 12.8 weeks.