The Law Commission of England and Wales (the Law Commission) has published recommendations to reform the law of wills in England and Wales, to replace the Wills Act 1837 (the 1837 Act).

The reform project has been running since 2016, prompted by a recognition that society has changed dramatically since the 1837 Act. Three of the biggest changes are that people live longer and many will lose capacity, with an estimated 900,000 people in the UK now living with dementia; that the average person owns more valuable property, notably their home; and that paper documents are rapidly giving way to electronic forms.

The last of these prompted the Law Commission to recommend that electronic wills can be formally valid if they meet specific requirements to ensure that they are safe and reliable. The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns showed that remote execution using video witnessing can be made to work, although the temporary legislative amendments made in that period are no longer in force.