News

Driving trust: What to expect from the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2026

31 October 2025

A focus on high-volume consumer claims, driving trust through a consumer protection review and effectively using data to identify and act on new risks are all priorities outlined in the Solicitors Regulation Authority's (SRA) new business plan.

The legal market has changed rapidly since we published our Corporate Strategy 2023-26 in November 2023. And with it the risks to consumers.

We have seen more large firm failures, rising concerns about the high-volume consumer claims market and a significant increase in the number of reports about solicitor misconduct.

The cases we are dealing with are often more varied and complex than those we have addressed in the past. The issues arising from the Post Office Horizon scandal is a case in point.

This changing landscape, and large increase in the work we need to do, means that we must prioritise those areas of our work where we can have the greatest impact over the next year.

We have consulted widely with the public and the profession on our new business plan to make sure we are focusing on the right priorities to achieve our mission of driving confidence and trust in legal services.

Below is a summary of the main areas of focus that you can expect from us up to October 2026.

Explore our full November 2025 – October 2026 business plan and budget.

Effectively using data to address new risks

The nature and complexity of risks that we need to manage are rapidly changing.

We need to be able to respond quickly and effectively to these risks to protect the public. We have already begun making progress in relation to how we use our data and intelligence to address these needs, and this will continue to be an important area of focus for us throughout 2026.

This aligns with the Legal Service Board's (LSB) Directions to us, following their independent review of our actions before we closed law firm Axiom Ince, and the recommendations in its independent review of our regulation of the SSB Group.

We are committed to moving at pace to implementing significant improvements in this area. 

Protecting consumer interests

Driving the public's trust and confidence in legal services is at the core of our mission.

The next twelve months will see us build on the wide-reaching work we have already done on high-volume consumer claims market. Our priority is making sure it is working in the interests of consumers. We have significant concerns that behaviours by some firms in this area of the legal market are putting consumers at risk of widescale detriment.

Our consumer protection review will continue to be a key area of focus. Our immediate priority is making changes to the current system to better safeguard client money and improve how we protect consumers. We will then return to the bigger, longer-term questions – about the model of holding client money and how we fund the compensation fund – after we have made those changes.

Tackling a significant increase in cases

We have seen a sustained increase in the number of cases of misconduct reported to us – increasing by 30 per cent in the last year (November 2024 to September 2025). This has resulted in a significant increase in the demands on our resources.

We are responding by improving our investigation processes, and working more efficiently and effectively. For example, we have resolved 30 per cent more cases in the last year (November 2024 to September 2025) than the previous year. But it also means we will need to expand our resource over the next year.

The rise looks to be accelerating. Over the four months June to September 2025, there was a 42% increase in the volume of cases compared to the previous year.

This is resulting in more investigations – we are opening on average 46% more a month. These increases will likely result in more enforcement action, placing further demands on our resource.

On-going prioritisation

The issues that we need to address have continued to escalate since we consulted on our draft business plan in the spring of 2025.

As outlined, we need to deal with a still-increasing number of cases, act on the recommendations of the Legal Services Board's (LSB) independent review of our handling of the SSB Group, and pursue the wider issues we are identifying relating to high-volume consumer claims. Consequently, we have made decisions to prioritise some areas of work over others.

Additionally, we welcome Sarah Rapson as our new Chief Executive in November 2025.

Given the rapid pace of change, it is likely that we will continue to refine and reprioritise our action as the year progresses and as Sarah identifies her priorities for the future of the organisation.

Find out more

You can explore more detail about these priorities and our wider plans in our full business plan and budget for November 2025 to October 2026.

You can also stay up to date throughout the year with latest news on these topics by reading regular updates by Anna Bradley, chair of the SRA's Board, published on our website.