Solicitors Regulation Authority consults on proposed corporate strategy

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) launched a consultation on 10 May on its proposed corporate strategy for 2023-26, as well as its business plan and budget for 2023-24. The SRA has also published, for the first time, a mission statement with the explicit aim of enhancing confidence in legal services, which is supported by the objectives set out in the proposed corporate strategy.

The four overall objectives to guide the SRA’s activities for the next three years, as set out in the proposed strategy are: delivering high professional standards, which means setting, upholding and promoting high professional standards for those the SRA regulates, in a way that is fair, proportionate and robust; strengthening the SRA’s risk based and proactive regulation, which means delivering and supporting better regulation through proactive and risk-based activity using robust evidence based on the regulator’s data, insights and intelligence; supporting innovation and technology, by keeping up to date with and actively supporting innovation and technology that improves the delivery of legal services and access to them, particularly for individuals and small businesses, as well as supporting small firms to use technology effectively; and being an authoritative and inclusive organisation meeting the needs of the public, consumers, those the SRA regulates and its staff, which means placing customers at the heart of all the SRA does, working as an authoritative, inclusive and responsive organisation.

In order to deliver the objectives proposed in the new strategy, the SRA’s business plan for 2023-24 contains budget increases, including a rise in the practising certificate fee from £151 to £162. Once the proposed budget and fee elements have been finalised, an application will be made to the Legal Services Board to approve the fee levels for 2023-24.

The consultation on the SRA business plan and budget will close on 21 June and the consultation on the proposed corporate strategy will close on 2 August.

Commenting on the proposed strategy, Anna Bradley, SRA Chair, said: “Much has changed since 2020 when we developed our current strategy. Yet the direction we set back then has stood up well to the huge changes and challenges we have faced, from the pandemic to economic downturn, war in the Ukraine to a boom in technology. Our new strategy looks to build on this, with an ambitious and bold programme. Our mission is to enhance confidence in legal services. As the largest regulator in the UK legal sector, we have a key role to play in driving the standards and regulation that support public and consumer confidence in legal services and the sector as whole. That’s important for access to justice, for the rule of law and for the reputation and success of the profession and law firms, both at home and internationally.”