– 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by on 2014-03-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the guidelines issued by the Law Society on 13 March on making wills Sharia compliant”

Lord Faulks

Sharia law has no jurisdiction in England and Wales and the Government has no intention to change this position.

The Government also has no intention of changing the fundamental principle of the law of succession in England and Wales that testators are, by making a valid will, able to leave their property to whomsoever they wish, subject only to the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

We encourage people to make wills by providing a relatively straightforward legal framework that keeps the formalities to a minimum and enables wills to be made quickly and inexpensively; and are considering what further steps we can take to raise awareness of the importance of making a will and to make the process simpler. We provide information to help people considering making a will on government websites: see, for example, https://www.gov.uk/make-will and www.justice.gov.uk/courts/probate/why-make-a-will.

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