With the SRA about to roll out its new theme-based approach to supervision, the regulator's director for risk, Samantha Barrass, talks to Jean-Yves Gilg about how it will work in practice
If potential criminals could see the devastating effect a prison sentence has on the families of those behind bars perhaps they would think twice, says Felix
It took the miners' compensation fiasco and solicitors helping themselves to their firms' money one time too many for the regulatory arm of the Law Society to finally come up with a plan to tackle risk in the profession.
Britain emerged from the Napoleonic wars politically untroubled and democratically 'balanced'. Many years earlier, the Act of Toleration 1689 and the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1778 had instilled a degree of religious tolerance. The economy was strong and Britain controlled the world's sea lanes after Lord Nelson's famous naval victories. Thus, there was little threat of revolution in post-war Britain – making political reform a very low priority. Such a sense of well-being would probably explain why the Duke of Wellington, the conquering hero of Waterloo, considered the political system incapable of improvement.
