SRA hopes to reduce handbook to a meagre 50 pages

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is hopeful of cutting its unwieldy and complex handbook down to 'under 50 pages', according to its executive director.

Last week the SRA announced plans to reconsider its regulatory model, which includes a long overdue review and simplification of its current 600-page handbook.

The regulator has accepted that its supervisory tome is too large, too complex, and in need of too frequent amendment 'just to stand still' in its position paper, 'Looking to the Future'.

The handbook's operation as a 'one-size-fits-all' and 'one-stop-shop' resource for solicitors has often been criticised as being hard to navigate and difficult to use by practitioners.

Speaking at the ARK Group's 12th annual risk management for law firms conference in central London, the executive director of the SRA, Crispin Passmore, admitted there were many of the regulator's processes included within the handbook that were not needed to be there and that he hoped it could be reduced to a mere 50 pages in length.

'Lots of our disciplinary processes don't need to be in the handbook,' he said. 'Most solicitors don't need to know them.'

Passmore told a room full of compliance lawyers from some of the City's most prestigious law firms - including Dentons, Wragge, Lawrence Graham & Co, and Nabarro - that there was a need to rid the handbook of such overly complex material which could be moved elsewhere.

Not all at the conference were in agreement with the need to 'dumb down' the handbook, however. One member of the audience highlighted that solicitors were used to dealing with complex and lengthy documents and that reducing the length of the handbook did not necessarily fill them with confidence.

'Complexity gets in the way of innovation,' responded Passmore. 'Of course you are dealing with complex issues but there are loads of businesses out there who are working on complex issues but doing so outside of specific regulation.'

While Passmore remained hopeful of a slim-lined handbook, the SRA's executive director said there was a reluctance to cut too much actual regulation from the document due to the continued misuse of client money by some solicitors.

'We can't get rid of any regulation though as solicitors do misuse client money. Some £25m was paid out of the compensation fund last year.'

John van der Luit-Drummond is deputy editor for Solicitors Journal
john.vanderluit@solicitorsjournal.co.uk | @JvdLD