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Compensation Fund overpayments apology

7 June 2007

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is apologising to solicitors who have been overcharged on their contributions to the Compensation Fund, and is working to rectify the mistake.

The SRA said an administrative error meant that more than 36,000 solicitors were overcharged for the year 2006/7. Some were charged a £500 contribution rather than £400, and others were charged £250 rather than £200.

"We apologise unreservedly for this mistake and are acting as quickly as possible to rectify the situation in a way which is fair to solicitors and keeps costs down. We are working closely with the representative Law Society to achieve these objectives. The matter has been reported to the Law Society's Audit Committee, who will be supervising a review to see why the mistake occurred and why it was not identified sooner. We will put measures in place to minimise any risk of recurrence", said Antony Townsend, SRA chief executive.

Details of the plans to rectify the error will be published on sra.org.uk and in the Law Gazette as soon as they have been finalised.