SRA Compensation Fund Annual Report and Financial Statements For the Year ended 31 October 2023

Principal activities

The primary object of the Compensation Fund (the Fund) is to replace money which a defaulting practitioner or a defaulting practitioner's employee or manager has misappropriated or otherwise failed to account for.

The Fund makes discretionary grants to those persons who have either suffered or is likely to suffer:

  • loss in consequence of the dishonesty of a defaulting practitioner or the employee or manager or owner of a defaulting practitioner; or
  • loss and hardship in consequence of a failure to account for money which has come into the hands of a defaulting practitioner or the employee or manager or owner of a defaulting practitioner.

The majority of these grants arise from claims made following an intervention by the Solicitors Regulation Authority Limited (SRA) into the practice of a defaulting practitioner. From 1 June 2021 the activities of the SRA transferred to Solicitors Regulation Authority Limited, a company limited by guarantee.

Regulated individuals and licensed bodies are required to pay an annual contribution to the Fund. Contributions are determined and collected on behalf of the Fund by the SRA.