HMCTS Bulk Access Service for Provision of Wills and Probate

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Court and Tribunal Fees Policy Team is looking to engage with current and potential users of the Probate Bulk Access Service that His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) operates. This service currently provides digital access to all copies of wills and grants of probate published in England & Wales for a fixed fee per copy.

The purpose of this market engagement is to develop a broader understanding of the organisations that use or would be interested in using this service, their views on how it currently operates and for what purposes the data could be used.

We want to hear from organisations who:

• Currently use the service and would like to participate in its ongoing development.
• Do not currently use the service but are interested in receiving access to this data.
• Are unsure if this service is relevant for their organisation but would like to find out more about how it operates.
• Operate in related sectors, such as legacy management or genealogy.

The findings from this engagement may help to inform any future changes the MoJ makes to the service and its payment model. The intentions of this market engagement is to develop our understanding of the current and potential buyers of this service, and does not commit participants to using the service, or the MoJ to any future changes.

Event details

The MoJ invites interested organisations to attend a virtual market engagement event on Monday 16th December 2024 which will be delivered via MS Teams and take place 13:00-14:00. Please respond by Close of Play Monday 9th December to allow time for invitations to be issued.

The intention of this event is to set the scene for the interviews and questionnaire, by providing background information on the service and to answer any questions organisations may have around how the service operates.

The event structure will be as follows:

• Introduction, including the purpose of the market engagement.
• How the service works and what users are provided with.
• Next steps for further engagement.
• An opportunity for questions.

Following the presentation, we will be distributing a questionnaire and holding a limited number of slots between mid-December and mid-January for one-to-one interviews to discuss this service and your organisation further . If you are unable to attend the presentation, we can send through a hard copy of the presentation if you would like to take part in the questionnaire and/or one-to-one interviews.

Some of the key questions we will be exploring include:

• If you are interested in using this service, what would your future plans be in regard to using the copies of wills and grants of probate data?
• What functionality/capability would you like from this service that isn't currently available?
• What payment models work best for your organisation?
• What are the key market risks in your sector?