Delays in granting probate are contributing towards £214m in lost revenue for cash-strapped councils, budgetary uncertainties for charities, and prolonging bereaved families’ grief and suffering. Those are some of the key findings of the now-disbanded House of Commons justice select committee's probate inquiry.

With prime minister Rishi Sunak's decision to call a 4 July general election cutting short the inquiry, committee chair Sir Bob Neill wrote to justice minister Mike Freer shortly before the committee had to disband to highlight areas where its findings could most assist.

‘It is unusual for select committees to come across a cost-effective response to problems that can be implemented at speed without political difficulty,’ Neill said. ‘However, on this occasion there is such a response: release the data.'

Neill continued: ‘Given that those organisations working most closely with HMCTS, such as the Law Society and the Institute of Legacy Management, feel that data sharing and publishing should be improved, I suggest that HMCTS engage more, listen harder and publish as much data as is practicable as frequently as possible. The charitable, legal and financial sectors have significant analysis capability.’

Cancer Research had to delay 44 projects. More data would enable charities to create ‘robust financial forecasts’, Neill said.

Homes exempt from council tax under ‘Class F’ (dwellings left empty by deceased person) represented £214m in lost revenue last year. Neill urged HMCTS to work with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, local authorities and empty home stakeholders to ensure probate delays were not the cause of care home debt or empty homes.

The committee also noted that bereaved families, ‘stuck in grief by the inability to complete the necessary bureaucracy associated with the death of a loved one’, may have to pay interest on assets and tax. Meanwhile, insurance for empty properties becomes more expensive or difficult to obtain and utilities still have to be paid.

Publishing more data would also help stop practitioners being unfairly blamed for delays, Neill said. 

 

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