Foreword

Welcome to our suite of corporate reporting for the 2021/22 year

These reports cover our work in Authorisation, Client Protection and Education and Training. The reports cover the period November 2021 to October 2022, our financial year.

Our enforcement work is covered in Upholding Professional Standards. We know that the overwhelming majority of solicitors and firms we regulate meet the high standards we set and provide high-quality legal services to the public. Our report looks at what happens when high standards are not met, and the action we take to make sure that service users are protected and confidence in the profession is maintained.

This confidence not only relies on trust that we take action when things go wrong, but also that we deal with such cases effectively and efficiently. We continue to focus on reducing the time it takes to conclude cases, especially cases that have been open for a long time. We have a significant programme of work to further improve in this area. Our Board will be closely monitoring progress through our performance reporting, which we make public as part of our Board papers.

We have also published an associated update on the diversity characteristics of the people involved in our enforcement processes, and the work we are doing to better understand why some groups are overrepresented.

I hope you find the overview of key areas of our work interesting, and the insights and analysis in these reports useful.

Anna Bradley, Chair SRA Board