Regulated population statistics

Population of practising solicitors, from July 2009 to October 2016

The SRA regulates solicitors and their firms, as well as other lawyers and non-lawyer managers working in law firms across England and Wales. We also regulate those working as registered European lawyers or registered foreign lawyers. Our purpose is to protect the public by ensuring that solicitors meet high standards, and by acting when risks are identified.

The chart below shows the trend in the number of practising solicitors (those holding practising certificates) in England and Wales. There are currently 139,313 practising solicitors.

Population of practising solicitors, from: July 2009 to October 2016

Each year we carry out a practising certificate bulk termination exercise where we terminate those practising certificates which have not been renewed. The results of this exercise can be seen by the falls in the numbers of solicitors holding practising certificates on the chart above in December 2009, January 2011, August 2012, March 2013, February 2014, December 2014 and December 2015.

We also carry out a keeping of the roll exercise. The results of this exercise can be seen by a fall in the number of all solicitors on the roll in November 2012, August 2013 and July 2014.

Snapshot of solicitors

As well as practising solicitors, we also regulate registered European lawyers, registered foreign lawyers, and exempt European lawyers and the current numbers of these three groups can be seen in the table below.

The total number of solicitors on the roll at the end of October 2016 was 178340