Probate Waiting Times in the UK: The Data

Probate in England and Wales was issued in a mean average of about 5 weeks, with a median of 2 weeks, for applications in the October to December 2025 quarter, according to the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS (Family Court Statistics Quarterly, October to December 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change). That is a marked fall from the peaks seen in 2023, though averages hide a wide spread between straightforward digital cases and those that are stopped for further checks.

This page pulls together the published official statistics on probate waiting times so you can see the numbers in one place, with each figure linked to its named source and reference period. It is a data note rather than a step-by-step guide. For the practical timeline of an estate, see our companion piece on how long probate takes, and for the underlying process, What Is Probate? These figures cover England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate systems, noted below.

The headline figure, and why an average can mislead

For the October to December 2025 quarter, the mean time from probate application to grant was about 5 weeks and the median was 2 weeks (MOJ/HMCTS, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Oct to Dec 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change). The gap between the two matters: half of grants came through faster than the median 2 weeks, while a smaller number of slow, stopped cases pull the mean higher.

In that same quarter, digital probate applications that were not stopped took a mean of around 2 weeks from submission to grant, and less than a week from the point HMCTS received the supporting documents (MOJ/HMCTS, Oct to Dec 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change). Around 92% of applications in the quarter were submitted digitally on the same source, so the median case is increasingly a fast, online one.

Probate time by grant type and route

Averages differ sharply by grant type and by whether a case is stopped. In the October to December 2025 quarter, grants that were not stopped took a mean of about 2 weeks, while grants that were stopped for further checks took 15 weeks, per HMCTS (MOJ/HMCTS, Oct to Dec 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change). Letters of administration, used where there is no valid will or no executor able to act, generally take longer still.

A case can be stopped where there is a query on the will, a mismatch in the paperwork, or where HMCTS asks for further information, per the same source. These figures cover only the time to obtain the grant. They do not measure how long it then takes to gather assets, settle debts and pay out an estate, which sits outside the court statistics and varies with the estate. For that wider timeline, see how long probate takes.

Comparing the same quarter across three years shows a steady fall in the mean time to grant, from 14 weeks in late 2023 to about 5 weeks in late 2025, alongside a large reduction in the open caseload (MOJ/HMCTS, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, as at July 2026, subject to change).

Sources: MOJ/HMCTS, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, Oct-Dec 2023; Oct-Dec 2024; Oct-Dec 2025. As at July 2026, subject to change. The 2023 open-caseload figure is as reported in the Oct-Dec 2024 release.

The government has publicly linked the fall to a recovery plan running since August 2023 and to more applications being handled online. A gov.uk news story reported the mean wait at just over four weeks in December 2024, down from twelve weeks at the end of 2023, with around 80% of grant applications then completed online (gov.uk news, 14 February 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change).

What the numbers mean

The published averages describe the court stage only, not the whole job of administering an estate. In late 2025 the mean time to a grant was about 5 weeks and the median 2 weeks (MOJ/HMCTS, Oct to Dec 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change), but obtaining the grant is one step among many.

A few points of interpretation may help. First, the gap between the median of 2 weeks and the mean of about 5 weeks shows how a minority of slow cases stretch the average; the typical online application appears to move faster than the mean suggests, on the same source. Second, the sharp difference between not-stopped grants at around 2 weeks and stopped grants at 15 weeks points to why paperwork accuracy tends to matter so much to timing. Third, letters of administration generally take longer than a grant of probate on a will, which many people read as one practical reason a valid, up-to-date will can help those left behind.

It is worth being cautious about reading too much into any single quarter. The figures can move with staffing, digital take-up and the mix of cases, and HMCTS revises its series over time. They also say nothing about the later stages, such as selling a property or settling tax, which often take far longer than the grant itself and vary widely. None of this is a forecast of any one estate; anyone weighing timing or cost may find it worth discussing with a qualified professional. For planning context, see our estate planning guide.

Probate waiting times in Scotland and Northern Ireland

The HMCTS statistics on this page cover England and Wales only. Scotland uses a separate process called confirmation, granted through the sheriff court, and Northern Ireland runs its own probate service, each with its own timescales and reporting. The Family Court Statistics Quarterly series does not measure those systems (MOJ/HMCTS, Oct to Dec 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change). Where an estate touches more than one UK nation, timescales can differ, and many people choose to take advice in each relevant jurisdiction.

Sources and methodology

All timing and volume figures on this page come from the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS Family Court Statistics Quarterly series, which reports mean and median times from application submission to grant issue. Figures are the published official statistics, rounded as HMCTS reports them, and were confirmed against the live gov.uk releases in July 2026.

• Probate waiting times, latest quarter, volumes and open caseload: MOJ/HMCTS, Family Court Statistics Quarterly, October to December 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change.
• Prior-year comparison (7 weeks mean, open caseload): MOJ/HMCTS, October to December 2024, as at July 2026, subject to change.
• Peak comparison (14 weeks mean): MOJ/HMCTS, October to December 2023, as at July 2026, subject to change.
• Recovery-plan context and December 2024 figure: gov.uk news, 14 February 2025, as at July 2026, subject to change.
• Application fee: gov.uk, applying for probate: fees, as at July 2026, subject to change.

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