Last Tuesday in Parliament on 12th September there was a session called Topical Questions and one of the MPs who took part was Peter Bottomley, the MP for Worthing West who is also the Father of the House of Commons. It was very interesting to see his question and there was a response from Mike Freer who is the Minister for the State of Justice who was responding to all of the questions. The session is available here and here is Peter’s question and the response from Mike.

Peter Bottomley: May I put it to Ministers that the nine-month wait for granting simple probate is unfair on people trying to sell their parents’ home? I failed to get the probate service to work, and I have a constituent who has written to the Prime Minister. Will Ministers please sort it out?

Mike Freer: The time taken once all required documents are received is between six and nine weeks. We always advise that no one should take a decision on the sale of a property until probate is granted, but I can reassure my hon. Friend that despite a significant increase in applications, the service is recruiting and training up more than 100 new caseworkers to ensure that it delivers the service that my hon. Friend wants, as do I.