The SRA Board has agreed:
· New SRA Principles
Our new Principles clearly and concisely state the high ethical standards we expect of those we regulate.
· Two new Codes of Conduct
The code for individuals sets out the professional standards and behaviours we expect of solicitors in practice. Our code for firms provides clarity on what their responsibilities are as regulated businesses.
· Solicitors offering services outside SRA regulated firms
Solicitors will be able to offer non-reserved legal services outside of firms overseen by the SRA or another approved legal services regulator. This will let them take the high standards, training and consumer protections that attach to their role to a greater number
of consumers through new, innovative business models.
· Revised and streamlined Account Rules
The new rules strip out unnecessary bureaucracy and focus on what matters: keeping clients’ money safe.
Extensive engagement around 11,000 people
These decisions were reached after extensive engagement with a wide range of our people and organisations, both before and during the consultation. We have listened to and responded to feedback from solicitors, law firms, the general public and representative bodies. We will continue to involve and update everyone as we move forward.
New Handbook will not be implemented before Autumn 2018
We will be consulting on phase 2 of Looking to the Future, which includes the rest of our rules and our approach to enforcement, later on this year. All of the Handbook changes will be implemented together.
We encourage you to stay involved as we work on phase 2. If you would like to discuss any of these issues, you can contact me at
crispin.passmore@sra.org.uk
