Proposal to Destroy Original Wills Overturned

The British government has announced it will not proceed with controversial proposals to digitise all copies of post-1858 wills in England and Wales and destroy the originals.

The proposal was introduced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) under the previous Conservative administration in December 2023, stating that the move was necessary to address the £4.5 million a year cost of storing the 110 million will documents.

The proposals were widely condemned by historians and genealogists. A petition to Parliament opposing them was signed by 15,793 people.

The MoJ has now published the results of its public consultation into the proposals.  It said that the consultation received almost 1600 responses, of which “The large majority of responses vehemently opposed any destruction of original wills”.

In its response, the MoJ said: “The Government is very grateful to everyone who responded to the consultation. It was very clear from the large number of responses and the very heartfelt nature of those responses that the issue was one which engaged high levels of public interest and concern.

“There was strong opposition to any destruction of original wills or other documents. This was for a variety of reasons in terms of both a national historical resource and also for individual legal challenges. There was also a strong emotional response to the consultation, typified in the comments received on the unique nature of wills as a record of a living person’s wishes for the distribution of their assets.”

“The Government accepts the compelling case that has been made by respondents… and has therefore determined not to proceed with any reforms that involve the destruction of original wills and supporting documents currently designated for permanent preservation.”

However, it noted that the decision to preserve the wills “does not address the concerns about the large and increasing costs of preserving the very extensive original will archive”.

It therefore warned that the government will “be giving further consideration to the fees charged for copies of wills and grants of probate”, particularly the current £1.50 cost of ordering a copy of a will.

This is very welcome news to family historians and we will be watching to see if any changes are made to the access or cost of ordering copies of wills.