SRA Update
Achieving the right outcomes – learn about our plans
SRA Update Issue 12 – February 2010
Outcomes-focused regulation is how the SRA will operate from next year, concentrating on the high-level principles governing practice and the quality of outcomes for clients, rather than tick-box compliance with rules. You need to know what we are planning, and how it may help your practice in the changing legal services landscape.
Changing both the regulatory requirements and the manner of supervision and enforcement will require significant effort and consultation with (and education of) stakeholders. Our new strategy paper sets the scene for this fundamental shift in regulation, and includes examples of how the new Solicitors’ Code of Conduct may look and how the approach could be applied in different situations.
The aim is to produce a system that is not over prescriptive, will allow the SRA and firms to work together to improve standards, and will concentrate SRA resources on the issues and activities that pose the greatest risks to consumers and the public interest.
Key elements
- Setting high-level professional standards expected of a solicitor—along the lines of those currently in rule 1 of the Solicitors' Code of Conduct—and how they should be experienced by clients and others
- Only retaining detailed rules if they are genuinely needed to protect consumers and deliver high standards of service
- Building a more constructive relationship between the SRA and firms, moving away from investigation of rule breaches as an end in itself, to a discussion of whether a firm can demonstrate that it is acting in a principled manner and achieving the desired outcomes for clients
- Focusing enforcement on breaches of principles and failures to achieve defined outcomes: Non-compliance with detailed rules will be less important if there has been no material impact on the defined outcome or principle.
We will consult on the detail of the new regime during 2010, with the new Code of Conduct coming into force during 2011. We will begin piloting new approaches to supervision as soon as possible.
Read our strategy paper