Insane UK government plan to destroy post-1858 English and Welsh wills

It looks like the government for England and Wales is seeking to replicate the tragic experience felt by Ireland in 1922, with an utterly insane plan to deliberately destroy its post-1858 wills and admon documents generated after they have gone through the two countries' 'probate' process in the English courts (the equivalent of Scotland's confirmation process), after they have been digitised. The insanity of this is that instead of creating digital surrogates as a back-up, they will instead become the only form of the record to survive - and, you know, nothing digital ever gets lost... The plans are currently out for consultation (see https://www.gov.uk/government/news/easier-access-to-historic-wills-under-new-government-plans).

Whilst this is primarily an issue for those with English and Welsh ancestry, many Scots and Irish folk did end up in the two countries, so there is a potential interest in this for us here also. Scottish and Northern Irish records are administered separately, and are not part of this insanity - but God forbid the archives in Edinburgh and Belfast become 'inspired' by this nonsense.

As can well be imagined, there's been uproar to the suggestion, as documented in the Guardian today at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/18/ministry-of-justice-plan-to-destroy-historical-wills-is-insane-say-experts.

A consultation response from the Society of Genealogists is available at https://www.sog.org.uk/news/moj-will-consultation-response/

Chris

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