New Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) chief executive Sarah Rapson says the organisation needs to “regain the trust of solicitors, law firms and the wider public”.
In a statement published on the SRA website, Rapson said the message is clear from the profession that the regulator is not getting the “basics of good regulation right” and she is under “no illusion about the scale of the change needed at the SRA”.
“Slow investigations and delayed casework are the clearest signs of this. Stakeholders have told us that our approach has been too reactive, relying on enforcement after the fact rather than addressing risks before they cause harm,” Rapson wrote.
The chief executive outlined four priorities for the SRA: a focus on operational excellence; proactive risk identification to ward off incidents like Axiom Ince and SSB; tackling issues that impact consumers most, specifically high-volume consumer claims; and improving collaboration and engagement with the profession.
New roles will be created to strengthen leadership capacity, and a new supervision pilot will be established to develop alternative to full investigations. A law profiler tool will be rolled out to “provide a more coherent view of firm-level risk,” and a “rapid and strategic risk assessment process” will aim to tackle the evolving challenges facing legal firms and individuals.
The plans have been guided by solicitor feedback and “the people that rely on the invaluable services that this profession provides,” Rapson explained.
“Put simply, we have not been getting enough of the basics of good regulation right. Slow investigations and delayed casework are the clearest signs of this.”
She added: “Carrying on as usual is neither realistic nor sustainable. We need to evolve to realise our ambition of becoming a modern, proportionate regulator that is trusted and effective.”
Following complaints the SRA is out of touch with the practical challenges facing solicitors and consumers, Rapson acknowledged more visible engagement from the senior leadership team is necessary, along with a stronger stakeholder and communications approach and greater transparency about the reasons behind regulator decisions, “as we did recently with PM Law”.
Concluding, Rapson said: “None of us want to see law firms failing, legal professionals losing their jobs, or consumers being harmed. We all want a thriving legal sector that serves the public well… Only with the support of the legal profession, other regulators and public bodies, and those representing consumer interests will we be able to build the regulator that the public and solicitors deserve.”
