News release

2017/18 Annual Review

23 May 2019

Published today, the SRA's Annual Review covers our structure, culture and funding, reports on our work over the 2017/18 practising year and outlines our aspirations for the year ahead.

Key points include:

• 11,508 complaints about solicitors/firms were received, with reports of incompetence, negligence or delays the most common raised by the public, and identity theft or bogus firms the most common from the profession.
• £18.1 million was paid out from the Compensation Fund, up £2.9 million from last year, most commonly for issues linked to inheritance and property.
• There were 10.5 million views of content on our website, including 690,000 law firm or solicitor record searches and more than 153,000 views of scam alerts.
• The average time taken to authorise firms/solicitors, assess complaints and conduct investigations have all improved year-on-year.

The review also provides data on the number, gender and ethnicity of regulated solicitors within England and Wales, as well as the law firms they work within.

The Review will also be published in Welsh and in Easyread.

Anna Bradley, Chair of the SRA Board, said: "Publishing the Review is an important part of our commitment to transparency and accountability and provides a wealth of information on how we work and what we do.

"As well as a full range of performance information, the Review covers our work with the public and the profession on key issues such as improving access to legal services, anti-money laundering, diversity and the development of the SQE. As the new Chair of the SRA, I warmly welcome the good progress that was made as we look ahead to the next stages in our reform programme and our plans to implement and evaluate any changes."