Probate changes
The fee for obtaining copies of probate grants, wills or letters of administration increased from £1.50 to £16 per copy on 17 November 2025.
This means that, for example, an application for a grant with 10 UK copies will now total £460 (£300 application fee + £160 for 10 copies).
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.”
What we’re doing
We surveyed 381 probate practitioners on the online portal, uncovering the extent of technical issues with the system and the impact of these on the delivery of justice.
We publish a guide on applying for probate using the new service, bringing together the advice from our regular meetings with HMCTS.
September
August
Based on member feedback HMCTS makes improvements to MyHMCTS for probate practitioners.
July
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announces that it will consult on whether to align the fees for grants of probate into a single fee that is set at cost recovery. We say the proposed rise in probate fees is unjustifiable given the long delays that users face.
June
HMCTS responds to issues with the probate service following feedback from our members.
April
HMCTS starts publishing management information (MI) on workload and timeliness for the part of the probate service that deliver grants of probate.
November 2020
The new non-contentious probate rules come into force.
The rules mandate the use of the online service for grants of probate applications by professional users, with a number of exceptions for more specialised applications.
September 2020
We shared our views on the non-contentious probate consultation: mandating online professional applications.
The government published its response on non-contentious probate.
October 2019
- The government confirmed that it would scrap its probate fees proposals following our successful campaign
- HMCTS announced it would roll out a national pilot that will enable legal professionals to access the online probate service
September 2019
- The probate fees vote lapses following our successful campaign
- We met with HMCTS for an update on the delays to the probate system
August 2019
HMCTS introduced digital amendments to grants, known as re-issued grants.
July 2019
HMCTS hosted an event on probate reform.
June 2019
- We met with HMCTS to discuss what it’s been doing to fix the delays to the probate service
- Our public affairs team briefed the House of Lords before a session on probate delays. Baroness Browning asked what the government is doing to reduce delays in probate being granted to non-professional claimants. Baroness Browning referred to the Law Society during the session
May 2019
We challenged HMCTS on delays to the probate service.
March 2019
- HMCTS started issuing a new style of grant of probate certificates
- We released a podcast about the new probate service
February 2019
We asked members to write to their MP about the proposed raise in probate fees.
January 2019
HMCTS launched the online probate service.
- We asked members of the House of Lords to support amendments and decline or regret the Non-Contentious Probate (Fees) Order
- The House of Lords passed a motion to put on record its regret that the proposed probate fees increase is greater than the cost of the service
HMCTS trialled an online probate service in 2017 for personal applicants and pre-selected solicitors.