{"value":{"id":694169,"memberId":4538,"member":null,"memberRole":"The Lords Spokesperson, Ministry of Justice","uin":"HLWS503","dateMade":"2017-02-24T00:00:00","answeringBodyId":54,"answeringBodyName":"Ministry of Justice","title":"Justice update","text":"<p>My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Courts and Justice (Sir Oliver Heald QC) has made the following Written Statement.</p><p>&quot;Today the Government has published its response to the consultation on proposals to reform fees for grants of probate. The consultation opened on 18 February and closed on 1 April 2016.</p><p>The Government is committed to providing a modern, world-leading justice system which is proportionate and accessible. In 2015/16, the courts and tribunals system cost £1.9 billion to run and we recovered only £700m of that through fees and other income.</p><p>The best way to protect access to justice in the long term is with a properly funded justice system. The income fees generate is necessary for an effective courts and tribunals system that supports victims and vulnerable people, and is easy for people to use.</p><p>The Government will therefore, subject to approval from Parliament:</p><ul><li>implement the fee structure as consulted on;</li><li>raise the threshold under which no probate fee is payable from £5,000 to £50,000; and</li><li>remove the grant of probate fee from the fee remissions scheme. We will retain the Lord Chancellor’s power to remit fees in exceptional circumstances.</li></ul><p>This means we are abolishing flat fees and replacing them with a banded structure, related to the value of the estate. This includes raising the fee threshold from £5,000 to £50,000 and lifting 25,000 estates out of fees altogether. Overall, 58% of estates will pay no fee at all and 92% will pay £1,000 or less for this service.</p><p>We are confident through our engagement with organisations like the British Banking Association and Building Societies’ Association that executors will have a range of options to finance the payment.</p><p>The new fee structure will generate around £300m per year in additional fee income, which will all be reinvested back into Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.</p><p> </p><p>Full details of how the Government intends to take forward these proposals is set out in the consultation response document which has been published on the gov.uk website.&quot;</p>","house":"Lords","noticeNumber":0,"hasAttachments":false,"hasLinkedStatements":true,"linkedStatements":[{"linkedStatementId":694171,"linkType":"JointStatement","linkDate":"2017-02-24T00:00:00"}],"attachments":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Statements/694169","method":"GET"}]}