Planned destruction of wills by Ministry of Justice

[Thunder]

Researchers should be aware of this proposal.


https://www.gov.uk/government/news/easi ... ment-plans

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/1 ... g-history/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... ay-experts


I have complained to the Ministry of Justice pointing out that these proposals are appalling. It is a well-known fact that paper records last longer than digital records which rely on equipment that may not exist in the future. The cost of storing these wills at £4.5 million is a drop in the ocean of finance, you could transfer the wills to The National Archives after a set period of time.

As for historical people it is well-known that Royal Family wills including Diana, Princess of Wales,' are not released to the public and have not been for 100 years, who is going to make the judgement on what is a historical person, who decides if Winston Churchill's will will be transferred and where?. Have these proposals been discussed with The National Archives?. This is the thin edge of the wedge, it is known that the Ministry of Defence planned to destroy the service records of British Army servicemen from the Second World War but MOD have changed their mind and transferred the records to The National Archives. We need the archive world to oppose this madcap scheme.

TNA have a series (PROB 1) of wills but only of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and which ends in 1854 (Prerogative Court of Canterbury: Wills of Selected Famous Persons).

[Thunder]

There is a petition for Parliament to stop this crazy and destructive plan is stopped. We need to get another 9000 or so signatures to get it discussed in Parliament.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/654081

[Norfolk Nan]

I've just received an email from a contact who has had recent experience of modern (ie c2020) wills being incorrectly digitised thereby highlighting the problem. Once destroyed there's no going back. And we all know that computerised systems aren't 100% reliable, don't we. I'll be signing the petition.

[Thunder]

Thank you for signing the petition. TNA have decided this is nothing to do with them!!. Many years ago details of Civil Service pensions were put on microfilm and the original files destroyed but after a few years the microfiche faded and the microfilms had to be copied and put back into paper form.

[Brunes08]

I have just signed the Petition against the destruction of Wills. I run two Family History groups locally so I will encourage everyone to do likewise. It is important to prevent this. If it went ahead, what would be next?

[Thunder]

I have just signed the Petition against the destruction of Wills. I run two Family History groups locally so I will encourage everyone to do likewise. It is important to prevent this. If it went ahead, what would be next?

Thank you. As you say what next set of records would be digitised and the originals lost. We know what happens when departments decide what records to keep, you only have to look at the wilful destruction of more than 20,000 files at the Treasury whilst TNA stood back and did nothing, shame on them.

[AdrianBruce]

... If it went ahead, what would be next?

Absolute doom suggestion from me, not specifically intended to scare people but... Could someone carry out a similar exercise on BMD certificates?

[Thunder]

We will now see what the MoJ do, will they ignore researchers?. I would really like to see what TNA said to them!!.

[Thunder]

This is the response I got from the Ministry of Justice, I await their response, I see most organisations have put their submissions online but not TNA (assuming they have made any response).

!The Government is currently consulting on the storage and retention of original will documents submitted with applications for probate. At present all the wills and documents submitted in support of probate (legal authority to manage larger estates of deceased persons) are preserved indefinitely in the original paper form. These records date back to 1858 and make for a substantial and growing archive. In total we hold around 110 million paper documents. The current cost of preserving this archive is currently £4.5 million per annum. Wills received since 2021 have been automatically digitised with older wills copied into digital format where a request is received to inspect a copy. The consultation proposes a reform that would enable older wills and documents to be converted to a digital form and then destroyed after a certain number of years (25 was suggested in the paper, but views have been invited on a suitable period). Responses are also being sought on whether all the documents currently submitted to support a probate application needed to be preserved (as at present) – for example bank statements or copies of death certificates. The consultation proposes that an exception to preserve original paper documents should be made for famous and noteworthy people, and views were sought on suitable criteria – although it was acknowledged that there may need to be further, more specific, consultation at a later date on that proposal, were it to proceed. This is a consultation exercise – no decisions on any of these matters have been made as yet, and we will of course listen very carefully and take into account all of the responses we receive and the suggestions that are made. The Government’s formal response will be published later this year. Ministry of Justice".