Banded against flat: the difference that decides the bill
In Scotland the court fee for confirmation depends on what the estate is worth. From 1 April 2026 it is nothing up to £50,000, £351 between £50,000.01 and £250,000, and £705 above £250,000, per the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service fee tables. In England and Wales the probate application fee is a flat £526 on every estate over £5,000, with no fee at £5,000 or less, per GOV.UK. It does not move with estate value at all: a £6,000 estate and a £6 million estate are charged identically.
That is the real story of this comparison. The two jurisdictions are not charging different amounts for the same thing, they are charging on different principles, and which system looks generous depends entirely on the size of the estate in front of you. This page covers all three UK jurisdictions and is general information rather than legal or financial advice. To model the whole cost of an estate rather than the court fee alone, our probate cost calculator is the quicker route.
The three systems side by side
| England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you apply for | Grant of probate or letters of administration | Confirmation | Grant of probate or letters of administration |
| Who issues it | HMCTS probate registry | Sheriff court (commissary) | NI Probate and Matrimonial Office |
| How the fee is set | Flat, above one threshold | Banded by estate value | Flat, above one threshold, plus a personal applicant fee |
| No fee up to | £5,000 | £50,000 | £10,000 |
| Fee above that | £526 | £351 to £250,000, then £705 | £326, plus £81 for a personal applicant |
| Extra copies | £2 each with the application, £16 each afterwards | Certificates £10 each with the inventory, £23 for a first certificate ordered later | £17 for a certified or sealed copy |
| Fees current from | 13 July 2026 | 1 April 2026 | 1 April 2026 |
What an estate actually pays
Put four estates through the three schedules and the shape becomes obvious. The Northern Ireland column assumes a personal applicant (£326 plus the £81 personal application fee); an application submitted by a solicitor is £326.
| Estate value | England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| £4,000 | No fee | No fee | No fee |
| £40,000 | £526 | No fee | £407 |
| £150,000 | £526 | £351 | £407 |
| £400,000 | £526 | £705 | £407 |
| £2,000,000 | £526 | £705 | £407 |
Scotland is the cheaper jurisdiction on every estate up to £250,000, and by a wide margin on modest ones: an estate of £40,000 pays nothing north of the border and £526 south of it. Above £250,000 the position reverses and Scotland becomes the dearer of the two, though only by £179. Northern Ireland sits between the two for mid-sized estates and is the cheapest of the three once an estate passes £250,000.
Notice how narrow the whole spread is. The gap between the most and least expensive jurisdiction never exceeds a few hundred pounds, on estates running into millions. Court fees are simply not where the money in estate administration goes, which is worth remembering before anyone reorganises anything around them. Our sibling page on probate court fees in England and Wales works through that fee schedule in full, including the copies arithmetic and who pays.
Want this checked against your specific situation?
Leave your details and a one-line summary. A probate specialist will reply within 24 hours, with no obligation.
Northern Ireland runs a third set of rules
Northern Ireland has its own probate registry and its own fee order made by the Department of Justice rather than the Ministry of Justice. The current schedule, Court of Judicature (Non-Contentious Probate) Fees from 1 April 2026, charges no fee where the assessed value does not exceed £10,000 and £326 where it does. The distinctive feature is item 2: a personal applicant, meaning an executor applying without a solicitor, pays an additional £81. In England and Wales the fee is the same either way, so Northern Ireland is one of the few places in the UK where doing it yourself carries an explicit court surcharge. The same schedule prices a caveat at £123 and a duplicate or second grant at £244. nidirect confirms the £10,000 starting point in its own guidance.
Two Scottish thresholds that get confused
Scotland has two numbers in circulation and they do different jobs.
- £36,000 is the small estate threshold. Where the total value of the deceased's money and property is £36,000 or less, the estate qualifies as a small estate and sheriff clerks can help the applicant complete the paperwork, according to the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. Above that figure the estate is a large estate and no such assistance is available.
- £50,000 is the no-fee band. It sets whether a court fee is payable at all, and nothing else.
So an estate of £45,000 is a large estate for procedural purposes, meaning the executor is on their own with form C1, but still pays no fee. The two thresholds are not versions of each other, and neither has an equivalent in England and Wales, where the £5,000 line governs the fee and nothing governs the availability of help. The full confirmation process is set out separately, and if the prior question is whether confirmation is needed at all, start with do you need confirmation in Scotland.
What the comparison does not cover
Three things sit outside these tables. Inheritance tax is UK-wide, so nothing above changes the tax position of a Scottish or Northern Irish estate; the rates, the nil-rate bands and the reporting all work identically across the UK. Professional fees are not court fees, and a solicitor's charge for administering the estate will dwarf every figure on this page in all three jurisdictions. And succession law itself differs sharply, most obviously in Scotland, where legal rights give a spouse and children a fixed claim on the moveable estate that no will can remove, a protection with no counterpart in England and Wales.
Which system applies is decided by where the deceased was domiciled and where the assets sit, not by where the executor lives. Estates that straddle the border are common and manageable: the Northern Ireland fee order, for instance, prices the resealing of a grant issued elsewhere at the same rate as a first application. If you are dealing with assets in more than one UK jurisdiction, or you are unsure which registry to approach, that is worth an hour with a probate specialist before you file anything. We can put you in touch with one who handles cross-border estates, and you can read the wider picture in our probate guide or the Scottish inheritance tax position.