The SRA published its fourth annual assessment of continuing competence on 20/8/26, in which they highlight examples of good practice as well as challenges faced by firms in this space, based on their findings and analysis from the last 12 months.
The SRA notes that consumers of legal services rightly expect their solicitor to be competent when they qualify and throughout their careers. This requires solicitors to regularly reflect on all aspects of their work, including ethical and professional obligations, and identify and address all learning and development needs to remain competent, culminating in the annual declaration of competence in the practising certificate renewal exercise in October (don’t forget this year’s window is currently open). The SRA also expects solicitors to record how they identified and addressed these needs and evaluate whether those needs were in fact addressed once the learning and development has been carried out.
The SRA’s conclusion is that most solicitors and firms maintain competence well. However, with competence-related reports to the SRA increasing significantly (from 2,720 in 2024 to 4,038 in 2025) there are clearly concerns.
What the SRA found
- Documented reflection: This appears to be lacking, although most solicitors are keeping some form of record of their learning and development. In a review of 123 training records from 66 criminal and civil firms (which were an area of focus for the SRA following last year’s annual assessment), just under half did not explain how the learning need was identified or why it mattered. As we all know, the SRA’s mantra is, “if it’s not written down, it didn’t happen” so how do you demonstrate that your practising certificate declaration is true if you have no reflection-records to back it up?
- Learning is too narrow: Continuing competence is not just about technical legal knowledge. Wider skills, particularly those relating to ethics and professional obligations, require more attention. (See our blog on the newly published consultation on the Statement of Continuing Competence here).
- SRA guidance is overlooked: The SRA produce many warning notices and guidance notes, as well as various thematic reviews and reports, which they expect solicitors to keep up with. (Given the ongoing difficulties of navigating the SRA’s website, the proposed SRA development of an opt-in service for users to be notified when new/ updated resources are published, will be very much welcomed.)
SRA observations from collected data to be aware of
- Communication with clients: limited explanation of risks, options, potential outcomes and courses of action, as well as costs, timescales and key deadlines.
- Errors in process and procedures: mistakes in documents and forms, failure to provide required supporting material and to fully reflect client’s instructions, missed steps, as well as incomplete preparation and insufficient evidence gathering, particularly in high-volume transactional work.
How does the SRA intend to address these concerns?
Following its consultation (upon which we reported in April), the SRA has proposed rules requiring:
- Solicitors to record their learning needs and how they identified/ addressed these.
- Annual mandatory ethics discussions.
- Targeted learning where competence concerns arise.
What firms should do now
- Review your systems for assuring staff competence.
- Encourage written records of reflection now, before it becomes mandatory.
- Remind staff that competence requirements are broader than technical legal needs.
- Discuss ethics whenever possible!
- Circulate relevant SRA warning notices and guidance to staff and check they are being read. (And sign up to the SRA’s notification service when it is up and running.)
- Carry out regular file reviews to check on client communication and process errors, especially in high-volume transactional work.
- Watch for the SRA’s post-consultation announcement expected later this year.