The SRA published its latest consultation on 22/4/26 into strengthening its continuing competence requirements. Below we set out what it means and what you can do.
SRA concerns
As we have reported previously, the SRA has had concerns for many years about their continuing competence regime and whether solicitors are keeping their knowledge and skills, including (and in particular) their ethical and professional obligations, up to date. These concerns were expressed in a string of Thematic Reviews towards the end of 2024 which either focussed on, or included, sections on continuing competence (SRA Anti Money Laundering Training – Thematic Review; A thematic review of probate and estate administration; Professional Obligations Thematic review), as well as others before that, and their Annual Assessments of Continuing Competence (the most recent being from July 2025), and were raised at the SRA Compliance Officers’ Conference in October last year, together with the promise of a consultation.
Why now?
With increasing numbers of complaints to both the SRA and the Legal Ombudsman (which often involve the issue of competence and ethics), and recent scandals throwing professional ethics into the spotlight (think Post Office, Axiom Ince, SSB Law and now PM Law, as well as concerns about the dubious use of NDAs), a more formalised approach was looking increasingly likely. Following the publication of the Legal Service Board’s (LSB) “Statement of policy on upholding professional ethical duties” at the end of March (see our April update), we have been waiting to see what the SRA’s next move would be. The publication of their promised consultation (Strengthening our continuing competence approach), with a view to changing the rules in due course, therefore comes as no surprise.
How long have I got to respond?
The consultation opened on 22/4/26 and will close on 15/7/26. If you have any thoughts or concerns about the proposals, make sure you get your comments in before the deadline. The link to do so can be found here.
What does the consultation say?
The consultation emphasises the concern that “many solicitors focus their learning and development on maintaining technical legal knowledge rather than the wider skills need to maintain competence”, namely ethics and keeping up to date with SRA Warning Notices and guidance.
The proposals include:
- Mandatory learning and development records to be completed, detailing solicitors’ needs and how these were identified and addressed (records to be kept for at least 3 years).
- Mandatory annual ethics ‘discussions’/ training (minimum of 3 hours per practising year, whether or not you have been practising for the full year).
- Declarations to be signed by solicitors confirming that proposals 1 and 2 have been completed.
- New rules allowing the SRA to require both solicitors and non-authorised staff within SRA regulated organisations, where competence concerns have been identified, to complete specific training. This could be profession-wide, practice-area specific, or relate to individuals, and could result in enforcement action if not completed.
Significant change or tightening of expectations?
Whilst these proposals may seem like quite a step-change, particularly as the current SRA competency regime currently only applies to solicitors (and registered European, foreign and Swiss Lawyers), to a large extent they reflect the SRA’s expectations in recent years (as could be seen in the Thematic Reviews etc referred to above in relation to both ethics training and documented training records – lest we forget the SRA mantra, “If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen”!) and are a move to strengthen the SRA’s enforcement capabilities in relation to the existing Code of Conduct for Firms requirement that firms ensure that “managers and employees are competent to carry out their role, and keep their professional knowledge and skills, as well as understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, up to date”, as well as the declaration process already in place when renewing practising certificates.
What next?
Any rule changes the SRA decides to make after considering the consultation responses will have to be signed off by the LSB (and the SRA have said they will not introduce the new rules until the start of the 2027/28 practising year) so it will be a little while until we see any formal changes. However, in the meantime, we strongly encourage firms to do the following:
- Review the SRA’s consultation document (and respond if you wish to influence the outcome).
- Review the SRA’s current resources on continuing competency and ethics. (The SRA’s latest Annual Assessment of Continuing Competence 2025 is also worth a read, or see our summary from our October 2025 update).
- Ensure staff are keeping a contemporaneous and comprehensive record of all training activities they carry out, including evidence of reflection on the training required, how the activity addressed the identified need and how the learning will be applied to their practice.
- Don’t forget that the Money Laundering Regulations already require in-scope firms to keep a comprehensive written record of all AML training undertaken, and the SRA regularly requests sight of training records as part of their inspections.
- Think about your Ethics training arrangements – do you already arrange such training? If not, get it on your list!
- Have a look at the Law Society’s free Ethical decision-making tool and Interactive scenarios within their In-house ethics framework (NOTE: These tools are not just useful for in-house lawyers and can be used to assist internal ethics discussions!).
- Sign up for the SRA’s free webinar on 13/5/26 to find out more about the proposed changes.
Our clients already have access to our Compliance in the Cloud CPD tool which helps you quickly and simply plan and log your CPD activities. Management teams can also use the app to monitor compliance in this space and provide further encouragement where needed. Alternatively, the SRA have a template on their website.
If you are interested in finding out more about our CPD tool and/ or you would like to book in for our Ethics training, please do get in touch.