The 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.
They were introduced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) under the previous Conservative administration in December 2023.
It said that this 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.
A spokesperson for the Society of Genealogists told Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine: “The Society of Genealogists is delighted that the Government has listened to the overwhelming response from the historical and genealogical community who opposed the destruction of historic probate documents. This consultation galvanised the community and the arguments put forward by the SoG and others were based on our in-depth expertise, knowledge, and use of these documents and the digitisation of others. It is disturbing that the consultations response paper hints that the costs of obtaining probate record will rise and looks to the charges levied by the General Register Office for paper certificates of births, marriages and deaths as an option. This ignores the fact that the efficient digitisation of such vital events has reduced the cost
“Having conceded the probate documents will not be destroyed, it’s not clear from the MoJ response document if the digitisation of the documents will proceed and how and by whom. This is something that the genealogical and historical community will definitely keep an eye on.”
