§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what arrangements are made to trace surviving relatives of those dying intestate in the Duchy.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe procedures followed by the Duchy solicitor in tracing surviving relatives of those dying intestate in the county Palatine are the same as those followed by the Treasury solicitor.
Extensive inquiries are made of the local authority, of neighbours and of any other likely source. If these fail to identify kin, advertisements are placed in the press.
When there is reason to believe that the deceased might have surviving relatives in a foreign country, inquiries are made through that country's accredited representative in the United Kingdom and, if recommended, advertisements placed in the newspapers of that country.
Following inaccurate accounts of this procedure in the media, the Duchy solicitor wrote to the secretaries of all law societies within the county Palatine. He set out the procedure in detail, and reminded them of the policy of the Duchy authorities sympathetically to consider applications for ex-gratia payments on stated grounds to those who did not qualify for benefit under the law.
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many estates under the intestacy provisions in the County Palatine passed to the Duchy in each of the last five years; and how many devolved, after investigation, to surviving blood relatives.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe number of estates administered during the last five years by the Duchy solicitor under the 485W Administration of Estates Act 1925 and whose assets devolved to the Duchy—no qualifying kin having been traced—are as follows:
Number 1988–89 437 1989–90 455 1990–91 488 1991–92 380 1992–93 357 During the same period, the number of estates which were reported to the solicitor but for whom qualifying kin were identified and to whom the assets devolved were as follows:
Number 1988–89 24 1989–90 31 1990–91 22 1991–92 34 1992–93 34 It should be noted that in many cases of intestacy, qualifying relatives were identified prior to the matter being reported to the Duchy solicitor and are dealt with accordingly. The tables therefore do not reflect the proportion of estates within the county Palatine which devolve to the Duchy on the one hand or to qualifying kin on the other.
§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for each of the past five years, how much was spent on legal fees in attempts to trace surviving relatives of those who had died intestate in the Duchy.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThere is no breakdown of costs available for the execution of the Duchy solicitor's duties under the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and the Companies Act 1985. However, the costs of placing advertisements for kin in newspapers over the last five years totalled £114,576–8.