The President of the Family Division, Mark Potter, is to set up a working group to establish a ‘fair and efficient procedure’ for the publication and disclosure of wills.

Sir Mark said the current rules were ‘far from user friendly’ for practitioners and the public and ‘provide little guidance’.

The committee will examine the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987, which set out the procedure for obtaining a grant of probate or administration where there is no dispute regarding the deceased’s estate.

The working group will produce a set of draft rules and supporting practice directions which are ‘both simple and simply expressed’, and which set out ‘fair and efficient procedure’.

As part of its remit, it will also consider rules relating to the publication of wills by the Royal Family.

The working group will be chaired by Mr Justice Munby, with membership drawn from the legal profession; the Probate Service; Citizens Advice Bureaux and members of the public. It is expected to produce the rules by the end of 2010.

Sir Mark Potter said: ‘Nearly 300,000 grants of representation are issued each year, over 30% of which are applied for directly by members of the public.

‘However, the current rules are far from user-friendly and provide little guidance. They have not been widely updated since 1987 and I hope the rules produced by the group will be more readily understood by the public, as well as bringing procedures in line with more recent legislation.

‘My intention is to create a comprehensive set of probate rules and supporting practice directions which will be presented in a way that makes them more accessible to litigants and practitioners, and which will provide greater clarity about the procedures to be followed.’