The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has unveiled ambitious plans to overhaul key pillars of the regulation of the profession in order to cut red tape, improve competition, cut costs and ensure that regulation is properly targeted.
In a policy statement entitled Approach to Regulation and its Reform published last week, the regulatory body announced that it will undertake separate consultations on a number of major issues to have come under frequent scrutiny since the Legal Services Act 2007 came into force. These include facilitating the entry of multi-disciplinary alternative business structures to the market; making changes to arrangements for professional indemnity insurance (PII) for regulated entities; making changes to the requirement that an accountant’s report is needed for client accounts; and making changes to the separate business rule to allow firms greater flexibility in how they structure their business.
