SRA: Initial assessment target being missed
The number of reports about solicitors received by the regulator has risen by more than a quarter this year and is set to have a significant impact on its performance, new figures have shown.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) latest performance report, published today, showed that just 36% of initial assessments are being completed within two months, against a target of 80%; it was meeting this target until last October before it began to crash.
And this is despite the SRA’s assessment and early resolution team increasing the average number of assessments completed each month by 15% compared to last year.
The team has begun an “improvements project… to improve timeliness via streamlined decision making”.
Since the start of its financial year on 1 November 2024, the SRA has received an average of 1,303 reports per month, an increase of 27% on the previous year. It peaked at a record 1,513 received in June, but the SRA also closed a record 1,562 matters.
As a consequence, the number of cases being referred for investigation is rising too, by 43%, or 236 a month, compared to last year. The investigation team is closing 24% more cases as well, to an average of 197 a month.
It said: “We are taking steps to address the increase, including through improvements and additional temporary and permanent resource…
“However, the increased closure level is not matching the increase in volumes, which is leading to an increase in our overall work in progress.”
The SRA aims to complete 93% of investigations within 12 months, 95% within 18 months and 98% within 24 months. It has been generally meeting or exceeding these measures but the report said it was expecting the increase in reports to impact performance.
This is set to undo at least some of the concerted work done in the last couple of years to improve the speed of investigations and reduce the number of cases that have been in the system for at least two years.
As of July 2023, there were 162 cases that had been open for more than two years (it had been over 200 the year before) and today’s report said there were 46 as of June, five more than in May.
Chief executive Paul Philip said: “We are continuing to try to understand the reason behind the increase, but as yet, we have not been able to identify any single issue.
“We have also been looking at data available from our website. Initial analysis indicates an increase in click throughs via Google and its generative AI search functionality. Further work is ongoing to better understand the increases.”
He said several short-term operational changes have been introduced but “receipts are continuing to exceed closures rates, which is continuing to create associated operational pressures with increased volumes and capacity challenges”.
Mr Philip added: “A new improvement project has been initiated to target more medium- and longer-term changes, including how we can best use technology to improve the user experience and introduce automation where possible.”
This year’s practising certificate fee increased in part because of the rising number of reports.
My case went on for five and a half years.
The SRA are there to protect its “members”.
A shambles, it needs an independant body