News from the Board

A key part of our work as a Board is to set the direction for the organisation by maintaining an eye on the future. One of the tools we use to guide us in this work is the strategic risk register, which identifies those things that present a challenge to delivery of our strategy.

This Board meeting reminded us that there is no such thing as steady state regulation. There is always change, whether in the wider world (Brexit, the pandemic, cost of living crisis, or the rapid development of AI) or more locally, in the shape and nature of the legal services market.

This month's Board was in Cardiff. In the evening, the Counsel General, Mick Antoniw joined us and our many guests from consumer groups, charities, government and the profession.

Two years' ago, CILEX formally approached us about redelegating regulation of CILEX members to the SRA. Since then, we have carried out two consultations, and the Board has been scrutinising what this change would mean in practise.

Our strategy establishes a defining purpose for everything we do: driving confidence and trust in legal services. A fundamental part of our role as a Board is having oversight of the SRA's work and making sure it is performing well and delivering against our strategy. The focus of this meeting was the first six months of the new strategy.

Our Board this month was in Exeter, with our discussion focused on education and training.

The SRA's new strategy establishes a defining purpose for everything we do: driving confidence and trust in legal services. This month's Board discussions were focused on just this.

In this month's blog, I wanted to reflect on two in-depth discussions we had about areas that are fundamental to how we regulate: our investigation processes and approach to consumer protection.

The focus of this month's board meeting was in-depth, informal workshops to explore longer term issues for regulation of the legal sector.

One of our most important jobs as a Board is to make sure we have the right strategy. At our meeting, we considered feedback on our new proposed strategy for 2023 – 2026. It was great to see such extensive, rich feedback.

This month's Board was in Newcastle – our second meeting 'away' this year following our visit to Leeds. We took the opportunity to speak with more than 50 stakeholders from across the north east and some members of the public.

We had an extra Board meeting in June so that we could discuss the feedback from our three-year strategy and business plan consultation and approve the SRA budget requirement for 2024.

Our June Board meeting was a quarterly monitoring session, so we looked at our operational and financial performance, delivery against our business plan and the strategic risk register.

Discussions on our future corporate strategy for 2023-26 which will deepen our work on tech and innovation and put more emphasis on using data and insight to help focus our activity and wider policy debates.

This month's Board was a quarterly monitoring meeting where we explore operational and financial performance, delivery against our business plan and look at the strategic risk register.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel challenged us to think critically about the extent to which our approach to regulation is consumer focused and asked to consider leading more collaboration among legal regulators.

Our first formal meeting of the calendar was held to conclude the Board’s work on three recent consultations – consumer protection for post six-year negligence, the publication of regulatory decisions, and the implementation arrangements for financial penalties.

This was our final meeting of the calendar year and we began by receiving an independent review of our Board effectiveness. An important piece of reflection which will see us making some tweaks to the way we do things.

SRA board meeting in Birmingham - altogether a really productive set of discussions about legal issues informed by local insights.

News from the board - Our Board came together yesterday for our quarterly virtual meeting and we were delighted to welcome solicitor Nicola Williams to her first session with us as a full member after some months as an observer.

Our July Board meeting should have been in Leeds but sadly the weather defeated us and we have had to rearrange our visit. But we had a busy agenda nonetheless, starting with a workshop discussion on next steps on the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) and post six year run off cover (PSYROC).

Regular readers will know how seriously we take the issue of money laundering. It is far from a victimless crime – supporting, as it does, the activities of terrorists, people smugglers and drug traffickers.

The pandemic means that it is three years since our Board last met in Wales. So I was delighted to be able to return to Cardiff this month.

This month's meeting was the first at our refurbished Birmingham office. The switch to hybrid working meant we needed to revamp our office layout to major on collaboration and networking and the Board were fortunate to be able to see the new layout on only the second full day of operation.

This month’s blog focuses on the invasion of Ukraine. The Board has been kept up-to-date with the action the SRA has been taking over the last month, but this was the first chance we have had to discuss the issues together.

Our Board started 2022 with a face-to-face meeting. I hope this is a good sign for the future! It certainly meant we were able to properly welcome our two new Board members – Lisa Mayhew, Co-Chair of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, and Nicola Williams, who is Legal and Compliance Director and Company Secretary of Welsh Water.

Our final Board meeting of 2021 was a busy one. Coming so close after our November Compliance Officers Conference in Birmingham, and the week of virtual events that followed it.

Since lockdown last year I have really missed the opportunity to get away from the screen and talk to people face to face.

The SRA Board held a quarterly monitoring meeting this week. Here we explored operational and financial performance, delivery against our business plan and looked at the strategic risk register.

Our June meeting was a real landmark - the first meeting of the Board since SRA Ltd  started regulating as a distinct legal entity within the Law Society Group on the 1st of June.

One of our most important tasks as a Board is to make sure the current and future activities of the SRA are the right ones. That means we need to keep our 'finger on the pulse' of what is happening in the sector.

One of the perennial preoccupations for all boards is whether we are focusing resources on the 'right' things. An important part of this is checking in with stakeholders on what is being planned.

I was delighted to be joined by four new members for our first Board meeting of the year. Ann, Dermot, Elizabeth and Vikas all bring expertise and fresh perspectives to the table.

One of the key components of the work of any board is the opportunity to really get to grips with the complexities of the day to day work of the organisation.

It is now six months since lockdown measures were first introduced as a result of Covid-19. We have all had to adapt and evolve the way we work and the Board had a useful discussion about both the impact of the pandemic on our operational work and on the profession and sector more widely.

At the time I applied to become a member of the Board I had recently finished a five-year appointment as the Chair of a Health Board in Wales.