SRA: Record number of reports about solicitors
The rise in the number of concerns about solicitors reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is accelerating and will have a knock-on effect on how quickly investigations are carried out, the regulator has warned.
The SRA said last September that the number of reports it received had increased by more than a quarter but papers from last month’s meeting of the SRA board, published this week, showed it is getting worse.
In the year to 31 October 2025, the number of reports received by the assessment and early resolution team increased by 34% compared to the previous year, from a monthly average of 1,024 to 1,375.
The team has increased the number of cases closed but is not meeting its target of completing 80% of assessments within two months, while October saw a record month, with 2,197 reports received.
The papers said: “We know that our increased closure level will not be able to keep pace with the increase in volumes, leading to a continuing increase in our number of cases in progress.
“We are in this context strategically reviewing our approach to how we respond to the reports we receive, and we are focusing carefully on our triage decision making on which reports need the most urgent attention.”
The increase is not confined to the SRA – both the Legal Ombudsman and Bar Standards Board have reported similar trends recently – and nobody seems to know why.
The SRA has done concerted work in the last couple of years to improve the speed of cases passed on for investigation and reduce the number that have been in the system for at least two years, and so far the uptick in concerns has not led to a failure to meet performance targets for investigation case closures.
Indeed, in October, the SRA achieved a stretch target of resolving 70% of investigation cases within 10 months from their assessment, and that the average monthly number of investigation cases resolved increased over the year by 31%.
But the board was told the increase in cases coming in the front end would “negatively impact performance”; there has been a 45% jump in investigation cases, from 165 per month in 2023-24 to 239 in 2024-25.
The other performance issue was in the SRA’s handling of high and medium-risk firm applications.
The target is to conclude 90% of them within 70 days but due to the increased complexity of cases – some of which can only be handled by more experienced authorisation officers – and a significant number of staff departures, the figure is around 70%.
It would take until October at the latest to recover the situation, the board was told. “We have strong quality assurance arrangements in place to manage the risk of a reduction in decision making quality arising due to the timeliness challenge,” the papers aid.
“We have a performance recovery plan comprising resourcing initiatives, a heightened focus on case allocation and management, enhanced fast-track approvals where appropriate and improved triage and proactive customer expectation management.”
The papers also warned that, with an expected budget deficit of around £5.5m in the current year, the SRA’s unrestricted reserves were likely to reduce below a level deemed acceptable, meaning that the board would “need to consider enabling an increase in reserves in our practising fee proposals for 2026/27”.
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