Equality Framework

Introduction

• 1.

  The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society in England and Wales, regulating solicitors and solicitor practices.

• 2.

  The SRA is a public authority for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 and is bound by the public sector equality duty which came into effect on 5 April 2011. The duty covers the following equality groups, referred to by the Act as protected characteristics:

  • age
  • disability
  • gender reassignment
  • pregnancy and maternity
  • race
  • religion or belief
  • sex, and
  • sexual orientation
• 3.

  The equality duty requires the SRA, in the exercise of its public functions, to have due regard to the need to

  • eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
  • advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, and
  • foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• 4.

  The equality duty is supported by a set of specific duties, which are set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific) Duties Regulations 2011 and require named public authorities (including the SRA) to set equality objectives and publish equality information. These regulations came into force on 10 September 2011.

• 5.

  As a public authority, the SRA also has a legal duty to work in a way that complies with human rights and we monitor this through our equality and human rights impact assessment programme, supported by human rights training.

• 6.

  The Equality Framework and its supporting documents set out our strategic approach to equality and diversity at the SRA, explaining how we are complying with our equality and human rights duties and identifying the key equality issues for us as an employer and in relation to our regulatory functions and services.

• 7.

  The Equality Framework is supported by the following documents:

  • Our equality objectives - setting our priorities for 2011/12;
  • Our equality and diversity action plan for 2011/12 setting out the steps will we be taking to meet our equality objectives;
  • A schedule of equality impact assessments that we have prioritised for completion during 2011;
  • Our engagement strategy which sets out key principles underpinning our approach to inclusive engagement with all individuals and organisations interested in our regulatory approach, our guidance, our policies and our procedures.
• 8.

  We will update the Equality Framework each year, reporting progress from the previous year and setting out our equality objectives for the forthcoming year which will flow directly from and support the SRA's annual strategy and business plan.

• 9.

  The SRA's first equality and diversity strategy and supporting action plan was published in 2009 and a report setting out our performance against that strategy has now been published.

The SRA's regulatory objectives, vision and values

Our regulatory objectives

• 10.

  In common with the Legal Services Board and other legal services regulators, the SRA is bound by the regulatory objectives set out in the Legal Services Act in:

  • protecting and promoting the public interest
  • supporting the constitutional principle of the rule of law
  • improving access to justice
  • protecting and promoting the interests of consumers
  • promoting competition in the provision of services
  • encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession
  • increasing public understanding of the citizen's legal rights and duties, and
  • promoting and maintaining adherence to the professional principles.
• 11.

  These regulatory objectives underpin all our work at the SRA.

Our vision and values

• 12.

  Our vision is for the SRA to be the leading regulator of legal services protecting the public, empowering, supporting and developing our people, providing value for money, fair and transparent outcomes and service excellence in all we do. We are realising our vision for the future regulation of legal services by transforming our approach to regulation by developing, implementing and successfully embedding outcomes-focused regulation.

• 13.

  New ways of working, supported by an upgraded IT infrastructure, will enable the organisation to meet the demands of the future. The right technology and training for our people will give us the platform from which to deliver excellent customer service which is efficient and effective.

• 14.

  Equality and human rights are central elements of this vision and will enable the SRA to be

  • a fair employer which recruits, develops and retains a diverse and talented workforce
  • a fair regulator, which is open, proportionate, non-discriminatory and transparent in the way it regulates a diverse profession, and
  • an inclusive and stakeholder-focused organisation.
• 15.

  Our values will guide our work and provide the framework for how we will develop as an organisation. Equality and diversity are embedded in our values which are focused on three key areas:

  • Protecting the public—putting consumer protection at the heart of all we do
  • Working collaboratively—we engage constructively with those who work with us; and
  • Valuing our people—working together to achieve our objectives.
• 16.

  Our equality objectives are designed to help us focus on our priorities for equality and diversity in the SRA and should be read in conjunction with our vision and values and our regulatory objectives.

The SRA as an employer

Our staff

• 17.

  We currently have nearly 600 employees at office locations in Leamington Spa, Redditch and London, and 80 field and home-based employees, although we are moving to a single site in central Birmingham in 2012.

• 18.

  Although the SRA operates its regulatory functions independently of the Law Society, we are part of the Law Society Group and our key support services (human resource and development, finance, IT, and procurement) are provided by services shared with the Law Society.

• 19.

  The SRA is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive working environment for our staff which means eliminating unfair discrimination, promoting equality and diversity in all activities and fostering an inclusive and respectful culture. This includes the full use of talent, skills, experience and different cultural perspectives to ensure that employees are respected and valued in the workplace.

• 20.

  Our staff diversity policy is supported by a range of other policies across the group including our

  • religious and cultural observance policy
  • bullying and harassment policy statement
  • flexible working policy
  • discipline and grievance policies, and
  • recruitment policies.
• 21.

  We publish diversity monitoring data for our employment activities and carry out annual staff attitude surveys which helps us monitor progress.

• 22.

  We are continually seeking to improve equality and diversity for our staff and our priority actions for improvement in this area are captured in our equality and diversity action plan.

Our board and committee members

• 23.

  The SRA is governed by the SRA Board which is made up of nine solicitors including the chair and seven lay members. The board is supported by eight committees and groups, one of which is the Equality and Diversity Board Group comprising the SRA Chair and two board members, which oversees our progress on equality and diversity and reports to the full board.

• 24.

  We are taking steps to publish diversity data about our board and committees.

Our adjudicators

• 25.

  Many of the regulatory decisions that the SRA makes about the conduct of solicitors and firms are taken by external adjudicators. We have a panel of 23 adjudicators who make decisions such as whether to reprimand a solicitor or refer them to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, whether to intervene (close down) a firm, and decisions on entry to the Roll of Solicitors by students and foreign lawyers. For complex cases and for some appeals, a panel of three adjudicators will make the decision.

• 26.

  The adjudicators panel is made up of eleven lay members and twelve lawyers. We will be publishing diversity data about our adjudicators panel.

The SRA as a regulator

Decision making

• 27.

  To help us ensure that our regulatory decisions are fair and transparent we have adopted a set of decision-making principles. The first principle is that decisions should be based on the application of guidelines or criteria, which should be

  • (a) fair to all individuals and groups regardless of any of the protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act 2010
  • (b) published and transparent, and
  • (c) applied consistently.
• 28.

  For all of the regulatory decisions that we can make, we have published criteria against which those decisions are made. All of these sets of criteria are being assessed for their impact on equality and those assessments prioritised for completion this year are included in our EIA schedule.

Handling complaints about the SRA

• 29.

  We are committed to providing a high standard of service and to dealing with everyone fairly and equally. We understand that we may not always get it right and have a three-stage complaints procedure to help us respond effectively to complaints that we receive. From 2010 we appointed the Independent Complaints Review Service to consider individual complaints that we have not been able to resolve internally and to provide oversight of our complaints-handling function.

• 30.

  It is essential that the public, consumers of legal advice, the profession and other stakeholders have trust and confidence that we will carry out our responsibilities fairly and without discrimination.

• 31.

  Through the complaints policy, we challenge discrimination by dealing thoroughly and sensitively with complaints of discrimination, making sure that staff are trained to deal with discrimination complaints and reviewing the incidence and outcomes of discrimination complaints and using the findings to improve the way that we work.

Monitoring regulatory outcomes

• 32.

  We monitor our regulatory work and for a number of key regulatory areas we publish annual monitoring data broken down by equality groups.

• 33.

  We collect diversity data from the profession to enable us to track trends and to monitor our regulatory work. We improved our data through a diversity census in 2009 and now hold ethnicity data for over 90 per cent of the practising population. We are taking steps to improve the data that we hold in relation to disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation. We only have disability data from less than half of the population, and data about sexual orientation and religion or belief from a quarter of the population.

• 34.

  Since 2004, it has been clear that BME solicitors are over-represented in many of our regulatory activities. Understanding the possible causes of this has proved difficult but the work we commissioned from Pearn Kandola to look at the data, gave us a much more detailed view of where disproportionality is arising, and where we should be directing our efforts.

• 35.

  The Pearn Kandola report is published on our website and we have adopted a number of recommendations made in the report to continue our work in this area. The recommendations are included in our equality and diversity action plan for 2011/12.

Promoting equality in the profession

• 36.

  One of our regulatory objectives is to "encourage an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession." One of the ways that we can encourage diversity as the regulator, is by setting standards for equality and diversity in the profession.

• 37.

  Principle 9 of the SRA Handbook which comes into effect in October 2011, will require solicitors to "run [their] business or carry out [their] role in the business in a way that encourages equality of opportunity and respect for diversity" and chapter 2 of the Handbook sets out the expected outcomes for equality and diversity in the profession.

• 38.

  This will replace Rule 6 of the current Code of Conduct. Our monitoring report indicates that there have been very few complaints upheld in relation to Rule 6 each year. To raise awareness, we published and circulated a leaflet to all firms in 2010, warning firms of the need to comply with the equality and diversity requirements.

• 39.

  We are looking in more detail at how we can more effectively encourage diversity in the profession in our new outcomes-focused regime and will be carrying out a pilot with firms to look at equality and diversity in the profession and how best we can supervise firms to improve practice in this area.

Moving to outcomes-focused regulation from October 2011

• 40.

  As we prepare for the introduction of alternative business structures which are set to enter the legal services market from October 2011, we are also transforming the way that we regulate the profession, moving towards an outcomes-focused approach rather than requiring compliance with detailed prescriptive rules. This transformation offers us a real opportunity to embed equality in our new approach from the very beginning.

• 41.

  As well as redrafting the Code of Conduct and all the various rules and regulations that apply to the profession and incorporating them into a new SRA Handbook, we are completely revamping our approach to regulation around three main functions: authorisation, supervision and enforcement. In exercising each of these functions we will be much more driven by risk and we are developing a comprehensive risk framework to underpin all our regulatory work.

• 42.

  We have consulted extensively on our new Handbook and have published our final conclusions on the impact it is likely to have on equality both for the profession and for consumers.

• 43.

  We are developing our approach to the authorisation of firms and designing how we will approach risk and how we will work with the profession to design the different levels of supervision that will be needed. We are taking equality into account as this work is developing and will be publishing a number of reports setting out our assessment of the equality issues in relation to each of these new areas. More detail can be found in the EIA schedule.

• 44.

  There is more information about what this transformation will mean for the profession on the Freedom in Practice section of our website.

The SRA's role in protecting consumers

• 45.

  Our regulatory objectives are clear about the importance of understanding the needs of consumers of legal services and the wider public. We are required to protect and promote the interests of consumers and the public, as well as promote access to justice and increase public understanding of their legal rights and duties.

• 46.

  We are working harder in 2011 to better understand and respond to the needs of consumers to help us focus our regulatory work in the right areas to meet our regulatory objectives.

• 47.

  During 2010, we developed our consumer engagement work, holding events through the year and conducting consumer research to inform our work. We will be expanding our consumer affairs function for 2011, and will be publishing a consumer affairs strategy to help us identify ways to promote access to justice for a diverse range of people who may have the need to consult a solicitor for a number of reasons during their lives.

The SRA's approach to stakeholder engagement

• 48.

  Inclusive engagement is an essential part of our equality and diversity work at the SRA and we have published our engagement strategy, which explains our approach.

• 49.

  Inclusive engagement is about actively encouraging and supporting the participation of all individuals and organisations interested in our regulatory approach, our guidance and our policies and our procedures. It is deeper than simple consultation or communication, and generally requires a long-term process of building and maintaining relationships and planning a programme of activity, rather than a one-off event.

• 50.

  In recent years we have been proactive in our engagement with the profession, holding webinars and roadshows across England and Wales to explain our work and listen to the feedback.

• 51.

  One of our key successes has been the improved engagement we have established with the diverse segments in the profession, ranging from sole practitioners to large city firms. We will continue to be proactive, improving contact with diverse groups and working with them where we can, for example by holding joint events and workshops for their members.

• 52.

  Our engagement strategy will consolidate our approach and help us to ensure that we adopt best practice across the SRA in the way that we engage with our stakeholders.

Publishing our equality information

• 53.

  The equality legislation requires the SRA to publish sufficient information to demonstrate that we have complied with our general equality duty.

• 54.

  We will be publishing our equality information in the four categories set out below.

Employment data

• 55.

  The first category of data that we will publish is the data that we collect in relation to our workforce, which includes

  • diversity monitoring data for staff, adjudicators, board and committee members
  • employment data for staff in relation to recruitment, promotion, training, performance assessment, redundancy and leavers
  • grievances and disciplinary action taken, in particular highlighting any harassment or discrimination issues that have arisen
  • information that we have collected in relation to any pay gaps—in particular the analysis we have undertaken in relation to gender and ethnicity
  • the rates of return to work for parents on maternity/paternity leave and for those on long term sick leave, and
  • the outcome of our annual staff surveys.

Regulatory outcomes data

• 56.

  The next category will be the data that we collect in relation to key areas of our regulatory activity. We will publish annual data broken down by equality group in relation to the following areas:

  • The number of new conduct investigation matters opened when we receive information alleging that a solicitor has breached the Solicitors' Code of Conduct;
  • The number of interventions decisions that we make each year—this is where the SRA takes control of a practice, or part of a practice, that the SRA believes is putting the interests of clients at risk;
  • The number of decision that we take to refer a matter to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) which is an independent tribunal that considers in the more serious cases;
  • The number of late accountants' reports that we receive—solicitors who fail to file an accountants' report by the annual deadline trigger an automatic regulatory response from the SRA.
  • The number of solicitors who have conditions imposed on their practising certificate—conditions are imposed as a regulatory measure to restrict a solicitor's ability to practise, or to limit the type of work which can be undertaken.
• 57.

  We will be reviewing the categories for our 2012 report as this will be our first full year of outcomes-focused regulation and we are likely to require additional or different information to effectively monitor outcomes under the new regime.

• 58.

  Our regulatory outcomes data will be broken down by age, disability, ethnicity and gender from 2011. We do not have enough data from the profession for the other equality categories to publish statistical data broken down by religion or belief or by sexual orientation but we will keep this under review.

Equality impact assessments

• 59.

  The next category will be the equality impact assessments that we have done on our new policies and procedures and our decision-making criteria. We have developed our approach to equality and human rights impact assessment at the SRA to ensure that our approach is proportionate and evidence-based. Work across the SRA is quality assured by the Diversity and Inclusion team and staff are provided with guidance support and training as required.

• 60.

  We are committed to transparency in our equality work but also want to be proportionate and relevant in the information that we publish. Information about the specific equality and human rights impact of our work will be made available to our senior management team and the SRA Board and Committees as appropriate and included where relevant in our consultation documents. However, only the final equality impact assessment reports will be published on our equality and diversity web pages.

Research reports

• 61.

  The final category is the research or other thematic reports that we have commissioned in relation to equality issues. This will include reports such as the Pearn Kandola report which considered the disproportionate regulatory outcomes for BME solicitors.

Accountability

• 62.

  We recognise that strong leadership will be critical in delivering our outcomes for equality and diversity and, as such, strategic accountability for equality and diversity rests with the SRA's Board, the chief executive and the senior management team and supported by senior managers on the SRA's leadership group who are firmly committed to this area of work.

• 63.

  To re-enforce this commitment, a number of groups have been set up whose role includes discussing equality and diversity concerns, providing feedback to inform progress, reporting on progress and having oversight of the action plan.

• 64.

  The groups include:

  • the Equality and Diversity Board group which is part of our board and committee governance structure and oversees our progress;
  • the staff diversity working group which supports the work that we are doing to meet our equality objectives; and
  • the External Implementation group, made up of the chairs of the equality groups representing BME solicitors and chaired by Lord Herman Ouseley. The group was set up to oversee the SRA's implementation of Lord Ouseley's recommendations following his 2008 report about the disproportionate regulatory outcomes for BME solicitors.
• 65.

  In addition we have regular meetings to discuss issues and report progress to other groups, such as the Lawyers with Disabilities division and the Sole Practitioners' group.

Conclusions

• 66.

  Our Equality Framework sets out how we are meeting our public equality duties across our different roles as an employer, as a regulator and in respect of our role in protecting consumers.

• 67.

  An essential element of this work is inclusive stakeholder engagement and our engagement strategy, our consumer engagement strategy and our communications strategy provide a framework for how we will be working with our main stakeholder groups.

• 68.

  For details about our current equality objectives, supporting action plan and EIA schedule please follow the links provided.