The probate fee rose 75% on 13 July 2026, from £300 to £526, and HMCTS has opened a new escalation route for applications unresolved after 12 weeks. Also this fortnight: the Child Focused Model begins its national rollout on £82m of funding, and the SRA’s notification consultation closes on 17 August.
Probate fee rises 75% to £526, and a new escalation route opens
From 13 July 2026 the probate application fee moved from £300 to £526, a single flat rate for professional and personal users alike. The Ministry of Justice says the new figure recovers the cost of the service and funds investment in it. The Law Society has written to the MoJ asking for further information, and has said any future increase should reflect tangible improvements.
Two details are easy to miss. Estates worth £5,000 and under remain exempt. And the fee for copies ordered alongside the application has fallen from £16 to £2. Ordering them upfront is now materially cheaper than ordering them later.
Separately, HMCTS has introduced an escalation process for applications unresolved after 12 weeks, with a further route for cases already queried that need more investigation. On timescales, HMCTS told the Probate Professional User Group in June that average waits for online applications were running at around 4.3 weeks. Paper applications averaged roughly 16 weeks. Caseloads have risen since March 2026 on the January to April seasonal peak. Full details are on the Law Society’s probate changes page. We covered the wider package in our report on the 13 July court fee rises. That dealt with detailed assessment and the Property Chamber rather than probate.
What does the Child Focused Model change?
The Lord Chancellor confirmed the national rollout of the Child Focused Model on 17 March 2026. The commitment is £82m over three years, taking it across the remaining family court centres. It was piloted from February 2022 as the Private Law Pathfinder, in North Wales and Dorset. Ten court areas now run it, including the whole of Wales, West Yorkshire, Birmingham and the West Midlands. Eight more follow in 2026-27, funded by £17m announced in February.
The structural change is the Child Impact Report, prepared before the first hearing rather than later in the process. It draws on the local authority, police checks and, where relevant, the child’s school. The approach is more investigative than adversarial, with earlier information gathering instead of successive hearings, and greater input from domestic abuse specialists. Funding covers a permanent increase in social worker capacity at Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru.
The Pathfinder name was retired in March 2026. Family Justice Board data shows average case length falling from 46 to 35 weeks in private law between December 2022 and December 2025. The judiciary has published the list of court areas going live this financial year. Family practitioners should read this alongside the new regulated expert requirement under rule 25.5A, which changes what a Part 25 application has to show.
A 75% probate fee rise lands in every estate quote given from 13 July, and it is the kind of number clients notice on a bill they did not expect. The 12-week escalation route matters more than it looks: it converts chasing from a phone call into a documented process, which is the difference between a complaint you can answer and one you cannot.
SRA notification consultation closes on 17 August
The SRA opened a consultation on 18 June 2026 on strengthened notification requirements, and it closes on 17 August. The proposal is a new rule setting out prescribed events that firms must report. Two are named: starting to hold or receive client money, and merging with or acquiring another firm.
Existing notification duties already cover changes to managers, owners and compliance role holders, serious financial difficulty, and changes to the financial services a firm provides. The additions target moments when a firm’s profile shifts in a way that may raise risk to clients. Aileen Armstrong, executive director for strategy and policy, framed the aim as earlier visibility of potential risk.
The consultation sits inside the Consumer Protection Review. Two larger questions sit behind it. One is whether the current model for firms holding client money still gives the right long-term protections. The other is whether senior individuals should carry clearer personal responsibility for protecting client money and managing risk. That second question is the one COLPs and COFAs should read closely, because it contemplates duties attaching to named people rather than to firms. Responses go through the SRA’s consultation page. We covered the related accountants’ report changes in our report on the return of accountants’ reports.