Lauchlan: Generally positive picture
The legal profession’s negativity about the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has increased markedly, but most are still positive about it, according to the regulator’s own research.
It also found a decrease in trust and confidence in legal services among consumers, as well as in the proportion of consumers who believed legal services are well regulated.
The SRA’s purpose, according to its 2023-26 corporate strategy, is to drive confidence and trust in the sector, and in 2024 it commissioned independent research agency Thinks Insight and Strategy to understand current levels of trust and confidence, the key components and how best to increase them.
This reported that most people have trust and confidence in legal services but would like the SRA to do more on their cost.
It also benchmarked views so the SRA could assess progress over the life of the corporate strategy.
Thinks carried out a follow-up survey a year later, with the fieldwork done in May to July 2025, but the results have only just been published. The SRA told Legal Futures that this was due to other priorities.
It recorded that, while 51% of legal professionals had a positive view of the SRA, 34% did not – up eight percentage points on the 2024 results.
Further, the survey was carried out before the Legal Services Board published its highly critical review of the SRA’s actions in the run-up to SSB Group’s collapse.
SMEs were the most likely to view the SRA positively (76%) and least likely to be negative about it (3%). For consumers it was 56% v 7%, for MPs and members of the Senedd (MSs) 49% v 4%, and for ‘opinion leaders’ 43% v 16%.
Asked if the SRA has increased trust and confidence in legal services, 46% of legal professionals said yes – but 29%, up four percentage points, said no.
The percentage of MPs and MSs agreeing rose sharply but was still only 35%, while for opinion formers it had gone the other way, down 13 percentage points to 32%.
Thinks found that overall positivity about legal regulators – and other regulators – was falling; the SRA was the most known and positively viewed of the main legal regulators.
More broadly, the pulse study confirmed that confidence and trust in legal services remained “stable and relatively high for most stakeholders”, the SRA noted.
“There was, however, a decrease among consumers of legal services, and the proportion of consumers who believed legal services are well regulated.”
Researchers were not sure why this was, with low awareness of media coverage or specific events or issues that could have caused it.
Elsie Lauchlan, director at Thinks Insight and Strategy, said: “The results from the 2025 pulse study painted a generally positive picture, with confidence and trust in legal services remaining consistent for the majority of audiences. High professional standards and qualifications remained fundamental to this.
“There is no clear evidence from this research as to what was driving changes in consumer sentiment relating to legal services.
“However, we do know from our own self-funded independent research that public optimism about the UK is at its lowest point since our annual tracking began six years ago. Yet, despite this broader shift, we found that seven in ten consumers still believed legal services to be well regulated.”
Consumer satisfaction with legal services remained high at 89%, and both consumers and SMEs: strongly agreed that solicitors were members of a well-respected profession and offered credible advice.
However, “value for money is a weaker point in the overall experience”.
The SRA has recently proposed a 29% increase in its budget, notwithstanding the survey findings that 59% of thought the regulator should keep its budget the same and not risk increasing cost of legal services even if it thought it needed more funding.
Views were split – around 40% either way – as to whether the SRA should reduce spending even if reduced protections.
“Sizeable” proportions of consumers (17%) and SMEs (27%) reported that they have experienced misconduct from legal professionals.
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