The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates solicitors in England and Wales. According to its latest annual report the SRA spent £16.5m on disciplinary processes in 2021/22, a £1.5m increase from 2019/20 (pre-covid). It should be noted that the SRA financial year runs from November to October.
What has the SRA increased spending on?
Increasing resources
The regulator reported that the majority of this increase in spend is because they have added more capacity to their investigation and supervision team resulting in a 10% spending increase from 2019/20 to 2021/22. The 2020/21 financial year was an outlier due to the pandemic and saw an unusually lower spend of £14.5m.
Other areas of spending
The SRA have said one area that has been given particular focus is the enforcement processes and how to conclude cases more efficiently.
The regulator has also been working on claims involving solicitor and firm conduct relating to bulk compensation claims. Of these, many relate to faulty cavity wall insulation, car finance claims and packaged bank account claims.
How can we help?
Hawsons is one of the few accountancy practices with a dedicated team of solicitor accountants specialising in the needs of solicitors and legal professionals.
We act for a large number of law firms across all three of our offices and offer a wide range of services which are tailored to meet their individual needs. Our legal client base consists of a multitude of firms of varying structure and size, from sole traders to limited companies and LLPs with corporate members.
Our understanding of the unique issues that many in the sector are facing, combined with our technical experience, allows our solicitor specialists to provide you with proactive, commercial and informed accountancy and tax advice.
Simon Bladen
Partner, Sheffield
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