Annual assessment of continuing competence 2025

Through our work, we know that most solicitors keep their knowledge and skills up to date. We also have evidence that most firms we regulate have robust systems and controls in place to make sure the solicitors they employ remain competent to deliver good quality legal services. We have also seen excellent examples of solicitors reflecting on their practice and recording their learning and development.

The public, clients and other stakeholders can report concerns to us about a solicitor or firm. The reasons for a report can vary. For example, it may relate to an alleged delay in handling a matter, or an alleged issue with a solicitor’s conduct or competence.

The SRA's Statement of Solicitor Competence defines what we expect of a competent solicitor throughout their career. As it covers a wide range of knowledge, skills and behaviours, a lack of competence is likely to be reflected in some way in many of the reports made to us.

It should be noted that our analysis is based on competence-related reports made to us, regardless of what the outcome of a given report was. This includes reports made to us where, after our assessment, we have decided no further action is required.

There are many reasons an initial report may not result in an investigation taking place. These may include factors such as whether:

• an issue being reported is within our remit
• SRA rules have been broken
• the evidence provided is sufficient to justify an investigation.

We analysed competence-related reports received between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2025 to help identify competence concerns and challenges. We also considered findings from our wider monitoring work over the last 12 months, including:

• findings from our training record reviews of solicitors practising criminal and civil law
• feedback from stakeholders and representative organisations we have engaged with through the course of our work
• information from our wider regulatory activities including our horizon scanning programme to explore emerging and future developments in the legal services market.

The number of competence-related reports we received increased from 2,720 in 2024 to 4,038 in 2025. Though, due to an overall increase, competence-related ones remained stable at 23% between 2024 and 2025 as a proportion of all reports received.

Our analysis has helped us identify challenges some solicitors face in meeting their obligation to maintain their competence. We found that some solicitors continue to face challenges documenting their reflection and carrying out narrow learning and development.

We have also observed, from competence reports made to us, elements of solicitors’ work that they may want to consider when reflecting on their practice. Our observations do not suggest profession-wide concerns. However, they may support solicitors in their ongoing reflection and to help identify any learning and development needs.  

Our approach to continuing competence is designed to make sure solicitors take ownership and responsibility for keeping their skills and knowledge up to date.

The SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors requires them to maintain their competence to carry out their role and keep their professional knowledge and skills, including their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, up to date. Our Code of Conduct for Firms requires them to make sure their employees are competent to carry out their role.

We set out the skills, knowledge and behaviours required of all solicitors in our Statement of Solicitor Competence. Solicitors can use this to identify their learning and development needs. The statement also provides the basis for the knowledge and skills assessed on the SQE.

The SRA does not prescribe how a solicitor should maintain their competence. However, we do expect solicitors to regularly reflect on all aspects of their practice and address any identified learning and development needs. We provide good practice resources to help solicitors consider how to do this including keeping their understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, up to date.

In these resources, we say that solicitors should:

• regularly think about their practice to identify if there is knowledge and/or skills they need to develop to maintain their competence
• consider their ethical and professional obligations, including awareness and application of any warning notices and guidance that are relevant to their work
• record how they identified and addressed any learning and development needs
• evaluate whether the completed learning and development addressed the identified need and whether anything further is needed.

Solicitors are not currently required to record their learning and development. However, we provide a template for solicitors to use should they wish to.

We carry out a programme of monitoring to regularly review whether and how solicitors are meeting their requirement to maintain their competence, and whether our regulation continues to drive the learning behaviours we want. This includes:

• analysing reports made to us to identify competence themes or competence issues in specific practice areas. Since 2019, we have analysed more than 80,000 reports. We publish findings in our annual assessment of competence report
• conducting thematic reviews and inspections where we have competence concerns about an area of practice or a type of practice setting. Since 2023, we have carried out reviews and inspections in residential conveyancing, probate, immigration, family law and landlord and tenant law
• reviewing training records to understand whether and how solicitors have completed learning and development. Since 2023, we have reviewed more than 1,000 individual records across a range of practice areas
• delivering a rolling programme of inspections to check on the extent to which SRA-regulated firms are complying with anti-money laundering regulations. We carry out around 350 inspections every year
• carrying out specific checks on training and supervision arrangements in SRA-regulated firms to understand the steps they take to assure themselves that the solicitors they employ are maintaining their competence
• monitoring developments and emerging competence risks through market monitoring
• regularly engaging with solicitors to understand the challenges they face maintaining their competence.

Solicitors must declare to the SRA, when they renew their practising certificate annually, that they have reflected on their practice and addressed their identified learning and development needs. They must also declare that they have kept their knowledge of the legal, ethical and regulatory obligations relevant to their role up to date.

This is an important regulatory declaration. If a solicitor fails to confirm they meet these requirements, we can impose a condition on their practising certificate to prevent them from practising unsupervised.

How the SRA responds to competence issues 

Where we have concerns that a solicitor or firm is not meeting our requirements, we use our regulatory tools to address this. The nature of engagement with a solicitor or firm and the sanctions we impose will depend on the seriousness of the issue and any aggravating or mitigating factors.

We can intervene to influence behaviour where we have concerns about potential or emerging competence-related issues. We publish guidance, warning notices or other resources to clarify our expected standard. We also write to solicitors and firms to remind them of their competence obligations.

Where we have evidence of an issue with the competence of solicitors and how firms assure the competence of their employees, we can also introduce targeted regulation.

We follow up on competence-related reports made to us that do not meet our threshold for enforcement action. This is in addition to investigating the most serious cases reported to us.

We take action where we have established that a solicitor or firm is not meeting their Code of Conduct competence obligations. This includes:

• requiring that appropriate training, remediation or supervision to be put in place
• imposing interim conditions or controls to prevent a solicitor or firm from providing certain services. 

Proposals to strengthen our approach

We regularly review our approach and assess evidence from our monitoring work to help us understand whether our regulation continues to drive the learning behaviours we expect to see. We also review whether we need to provide further support to solicitors and firms to help them meet their obligations.

From this work, we consistently see that some solicitors:

• cannot demonstrate that their learning and development is a result of regular and meaningful reflection
• focus their learning and development on maintaining technical legal knowledge rather than the wider skills needed to maintain competence
• have not demonstrated that they have carried out regular learning and development relating to ethics
• are not aware, or have not taken account of, relevant warning notices and guidance when identifying their learning needs. 

We have consulted on proposals to strengthen our approach based on findings from our previous annual assessments and wider information we hold.

The SRA proposed introducing new rules to: 

• require solicitors to record their learning and development needs and how they identified and addressed these
• require solicitors to participate annually in mandatory ethics discussions. They are bound by their ethical duties, wherever and however they practise and will encounter ethical dilemmas and novel scenarios through which they must work. We believe that engaging in such discussions with other solicitors about how to approach ethical dilemmas and unfamiliar scenarios will help them decide on the right course of action when approaching such situations in practice 
• require some or all solicitors to complete specific learning and development where we identify a competence concern or concern in how competence is maintained. 

Alongside the consultation, we engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to hear views on all our proposals, including how mandatory ethics discussions could be implemented. Stakeholders identified potential benefits of our proposals, implementation challenges which some firms could face if they were introduced, as well as suggestions on they could be mitigated. We are carefully considering all consultation feedback, stakeholder views, implementation challenges and whether we need to amend our proposal in light of these. We will publish our post-consultation position later this year.

We are carefully considering all consultation feedback, stakeholder views, implementation challenges and whether we need to amend our proposal in light of these. We will publish our post-consultation position later this year.

Focused on consumer harm

High-volume consumer claims can provide access to justice for the public when they are managed well. However, they can pose a significant risk to consumers and to confidence in legal services when they are not. Where poor practices occur, the scale of activity means the potential for harm is high, making this a priority area of our work.

Over the last 12 months, we have continued to deliver a programme of work to protect consumers, hold firms to account and identify issues and themes across this sector. We have also taken steps to satisfy ourselves that solicitors are fulfilling their obligations to always act in their clients’ best interests and that firms have systems in place to ensure that all individuals working on client matters are competent and complying with their regulatory obligations.

Our programme of work includes:

• investigating potential wrong-doing and taking enforcement action. As of June 2026, we have 94 open investigations relating to 68 firms that manage high-volume consumer claims. We have closed seven firms because of this work
• publishing a thematic review of high-volume claims in August 2025. This highlighted good and poor practice and resources for solicitors and firms, including how to maintain competence, to help firms comply with our rules and act in clients’ best interests
• proactively engaging with firms in the high-volume consumer claims sector to share our concerns and require them to complete a declaration that they are compliant with our rules and obligations
• publishing research into consumers' experiences of making claims through law firms, including how claims are marketed, started and progressed, and what shapes positive or negative experiences
• issuing a discussion paper seeking views on challenges for consumers in high-volume claims, with insights informing future regulatory action to support a safer claims market
• launching a consultation on proposals to strengthen requirements for solicitors using or arranging third-party litigation funding (TPLF) in consumer claims, along with new guidance on using or arranging TPLF
• issuing a warning notice on ‘no win, no fee’ and other fee arrangements in high-volume consumer claims, and updated guidance on claims management activity
• developing and testing a range of onboarding materials, including checklists and key facts documents, to support clearer understanding for consumers of costs, risks and available options so they can make informed choices.

The SRA has also taken steps to clarify our expectations and obligations in relation to motor finance commission claims. We and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a joint statement outlining expectations for law firms and claim management companies to make sure clients don't have multiple representatives for the same claim and are not charged excessive termination fees.

In March 2026, we launched a motor finance taskforce with the FCA and the Advertising Standards Agency. This taskforce is focussed on tackling the poor handling of motor claims by some firms and claims management companies.

We also continue to support the FCA's review of the claims market, which is gathering evidence to understand the root causes of practices observed by firms in the claims management market and how they impact competition and consumer outcomes.

Steps to drive ethical behaviour

Ethics should guide everything solicitors do. The SRA Principles clearly set out what we expect – honesty and integrity, with independence and in the interests of justice, while acting in the best interests of their client. 

We said in our 2025 annual assessment of competence that there was limited evidence to suggest that solicitors were regularly carrying out learning and development to keep their understanding of their ethical and professional obligations up to date. We also said that there was evidence to suggest limited engagement and application of our warning notices and guidance from some solicitors. We outlined a number of actions we would take. We provide an update on our progress against these actions in this report.

A number of resources have been published to support solicitors, especially in areas where ethical challenges are common. This includes guidance for in-house solicitors, recognising the unique challenges in their work, including potential pressure from their employer to act unethically.

We also highlight the importance of a positive workplace culture in driving good ethical practice. Unsupportive, bullying or toxic working environments can increase ethical risks, so we have provided clear expectations for firms and guidance to help report inappropriate behaviour to us. 

We recognise that there is more to be done to drive ethical behaviour and support solicitors, particularly in response to a rapidly changing legal sector. 

The LSB's statement of policy, published in March 2026, sets clear requirements for regulators in relation to upholding professional ethical duties. We are ensuring our approach meets these expectations through our ongoing work on professional ethics. Alongside this, we are undertaking a broader review of how professional ethical duties are applied in practice. 

We want to make sure our work in this area is properly informed by the realities and complexities of legal practice. A listening exercise  was launched in spring 2026 to gather insights from the profession and others involved in the legal sector. This explored the factors driving unethical behaviour, and what can be done to address them, including through providing greater support to those we regulate. 

Using this insight, we are taking forward work to:

• refine how we support those we regulate to meet their professional ethical duties
• better address the drivers of unethical behaviour
• reflect the realities of modern legal practice. 

We aim to take a broad view of where our approach should evolve to strengthen ethical standards across the profession.

We will continue to engage with the sector as this work progresses, using the insights we have gathered to inform our thinking. Where appropriate, we will seek views on our proposals, with the aim of ensuring our approach is clear, practical and supports solicitors to uphold high ethical standards in their day-to-day work. 

Responded to the declaration made by solicitors when renewing their practising certificate

When renewing their practising certificate, solicitors must confirm that they:

• are up to date with all legal, ethical, and regulatory obligations relevant to their role
• have reflected on their practice and addressed any identified learning and development needs
• are competent to perform their role.

Where a solicitor does not confirm this, we may impose a condition on their practising certificate preventing unsupervised practice.

The condition will only be lifted once the solicitor provides evidence, subject to our assessment, that they have maintained their competence and understand their professional obligations.

In 2025, 606 solicitors told us they had not met the declaration requirements when renewing their practising certificate. We reviewed each case and, in most cases, we accepted the reasons provided. For example, because they had not practised for the full practising year due to illness or maternity leave.

We followed up on a small number of declarations where the reason provided was not clear. In each case, we were satisfied with subsequent assurances that competence had been maintained.

Responded to competence concerns

Over the last 12 months, we identified 19 competence-related reports that did not pass our assessment threshold but gave rise to concerns about a solicitor’s knowledge, skills or expertise. We engaged with each firm named in the report and required them to either make a declaration that:

• they have taken steps to address the issue or
• the firm's managers and employees involved in delivering the work outlined in the report have the required professional knowledge and skills to carry out their roles.

All firms we engaged with returned a declaration that we were satisfied with.

Strengthened how we review evidence of learning and development

We regularly require solicitors to provide evidence that they are taking steps to maintain their competence. We have, over the last 12 months, strengthened our assessment of this evidence to give us greater assurance that solicitors are keeping their knowledge and skills up to date.

We now assess the extent to which solicitors are aware of, and use, warning notices, guidance, continuing competence resources and the Statement of Solicitor Competence when planning their learning and development. We also check whether they have changed role or practice area, and if so, whether there has been any learning and development in the new practice area.

Reviewed training records of criminal and civil law solicitors

In our 2025 annual assessment of competence, we found that competence-related reports had increased in criminal and civil law between 2023 and 2024.

We said we would review a sample of learning and development evidence from solicitors working in these areas. This is to help us understand whether and how they were maintaining their competence.

We reviewed 123 training records from solicitors in these areas across 66 firms. All 123 respondents completed some form of learning and development during the review period 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025.

Almost all solicitors had kept some form of record of their learning and development, and it was up to date. A small number who had not done so said this was because their learning and development was informal and they did not consider that it needed to be recorded.

Most solicitors who kept a record had completed between one and four learning activities and the focus was on maintaining technical legal practice. Our review did not assess the quality or effectiveness of the learning and development carried out.

Training records captured some information well, including the title of the learning and development, date completed, and method of delivery. However, just under half of the records we reviewed did not explain how the learning need was identified and why it was important to address the issue.

Reminded solicitors of their obligation to maintain competence

We have regularly reminded solicitors of their regulatory obligation to maintain competence and provided links to our continuing competence resources in our profession-wide communications. Over the last 12 months, we have had 53,781 visits to the continuing competence section of our website.

At the 2025 Compliance Officers Conference, we delivered a session on continuing competence requirements and levels of compliance by solicitors and firms. Several firms also shared their approaches to maintaining solicitor competence. The session was attended by over 150 compliance officers and solicitors, with a further 556 virtual views of the session.

We continue to participate in the Legal Services Regulators’ Ongoing Competence Forum. This forum allows regulators to share insights, best practice, data and ideas on maintaining competence. It also helps identify new challenges, risks, and trends.

Clarified our regulatory obligations

We continue to set out solicitors’ obligations and how to comply with them by publishing warning notices and guidance. Solicitors are expected to identify, understand and apply relevant guidance to their work, as doing so helps maintain competence.

Over the past 12 months, we issued a warning notice to remind solicitors of the key requirements to have in place adequate controls to prevent, detect and report money laundering and to make suspicious activity reports. This is in in addition to our high-volume claims warning notice and guidance.

Further guidance documents have been issued over the last 12 months. These provide clarity to solicitors and firms on our rules and how they can meet them and cover a range of topics, including:

• helping solicitors and firms protect themselves from the threats of sham litigation
• complying with Principle 6 on encouraging on equality, diversity and inclusion
• outlining the professional duties and key risks for solicitors, law firms and their employees when representing clients during claims
• helping firms assess their exposure to risks associated with the UK's sanctions regime
• clarifying the circumstances in which a solicitor or firm may be entitled to terminate an existing client retainer.

In our 2025 annual assessment, we highlighted that some solicitors found it difficult to identify all relevant warning notices and guidance. We said we would improve the way this information is signposted and made available through our digital channels, so solicitors can more easily find, access and apply the material relevant to their work.

We have launched a pilot project involving solicitors in the drafting and naming of our guidance and warning notices. This will make it easier for users to identify and recognise the relevance of our content in search results and website menus, for example. More than 250 solicitors from a wide range of firms have participated in this work.

There is an opt-in notification service being developed for SRA website users who wish to receive a mobile device notification or desktop browser notification whenever we publish new guidance or update existing material. We expect this to be in place by autumn 2026. This will support more timely engagement and help solicitors stay informed about changes relevant to their obligations.

Supported solicitors to maintain their competence

We updated our continuing competence resources to highlight that solicitors should reflect on all areas of their practice and not just on the quality of their technical legal knowledge.

Support for when solicitors renew their practising certificate has been updated, so they are clear that when making a declaration they must have reflected on all aspects of their practice.

We have used our data and ongoing monitoring work to identify challenges in how some solicitors meet their competence obligations.

All solicitors and firms should consider whether the issues we have identified are relevant to them and, if so, take steps to address them to maintain their competence.

Challenges recording reflection and narrow learning and development

We expect solicitors to regularly reflect on all aspects of their practice. This involves thinking about their work to identify all potential learning and development needs. We expect all identified needs to be addressed.

Keeping a record of this reflection can help demonstrate that solicitors are taking steps to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. Failing to do so can indicate that important development needs are not being properly identified or addressed.

Our findings

There are some good practice examples of solicitors documenting reflection as part of our review of criminal and employment training records. This included:

• evidencing clearly that reflection was ongoing
• comprehensively describing how reflection had been carried out
• why the learning and development was required.

We also saw a range of good practice approaches used to reflect on practice and identify learning and development needs. These included:

• a change in the law or practice
• reviewing client files or case discussion
• reflecting on strengths and weaknesses.

However, from our analysis of training records we found that almost half of solicitors who kept a record of their learning and development did not record how the training need was identified.

We also found that where learning and development had been completed, it was focussed on maintaining technical legal practice. There was limited evidence to suggest that solicitors were completing learning and development in relation to wider areas of their practice.

What the SRA will do next

We already outline in our continuing competence resources that we expect solicitors to regularly consider all aspects of their role and their work. This involves them reviewing whether they have the skills and knowledge to fulfil their role competently and to address any learning and development needs they identify.

This is important because a solicitor's role, the law and the demands of legal practice change. Consequently, the skills and knowledge they need to practise competently change too. Regularly considering their role and their work helps to identify all learning and development needs.

To maintain competence, all solicitors should regularly undertake learning and development to keep their understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations up to date. Through our work we consistently see that ethics learning and development is not carried out by some solicitors.

The SRA want solicitors to regularly discuss, consider and be supported to think about ethical duties and how they apply beyond the rules of professional conduct. We want solicitors to be confident in making ethical decisions and able to deal comfortably with unfamiliar or ethically challenging scenarios.

We want to drive a culture where all solicitors reflect on all aspects of their practice and regularly carry out ethics learning and development.

We have consulted on introducing a new rule to strengthen reflection and learning behaviours by requiring all solicitors to keep a record of their learning and development, showing that they have considered their role and work, identified any learning needs, and recorded how those needs were addressed.

Subject to our analysis of consultation feedback and stakeholder views and approval by the Legal Services Board, we will implement this rule at the start of the 2027/28 practising year.

In the meantime, we will:

• engage with solicitors and firms to better understand the challenges they face in reflecting on their practice and how these can be addressed. This will help us develop more effective support for solicitors and firms in future
• review the extent to which solicitors document reflection through our training record reviews. We will also explore the extent to which solicitors carry out learning and development beyond maintaining technical legal knowledge
• use our ongoing communications to promote our resources and remind solicitors and firms about the importance of reflection in maintaining competence.

We have also made several observations from our work to help solicitors meet their obligation to maintain their competence.

These observations are based on the content of some competence reports made to us. We are not suggesting that our observations are widespread across the profession. However, solicitors may find them useful to support their regular reflection on their practice and to help identify any learning and development needs.

Communication with clients

We know that many solicitors provide timely and clear advice to their clients. And that many solicitors take steps to keep their communication skills up to date as part of how they maintain their competence.

However, we observed that some reports made to us identified issues in how some solicitors communicated with clients including:

• limited explanation of risks, options and potential outcomes
• legal information not being communicated clearly
• insufficient information about available courses of action, and the reasons for recommendations and information about matters such as costs, timescales and key deadlines.

Clients reported a range of impacts, including delays, uncertainty and difficulty making informed decisions as a result.

Applying legal knowledge to processes and procedures

We know many solicitors focus their learning and development on maintaining their understanding of the law so they can apply it to relevant processes and procedures accurately. However, some reports made to us referenced errors in how some solicitors did this.

These issues were mentioned across a wide range of work types and were more common in matters involving high volumes of transactional work. Common issues included:

• errors or omissions in documents
• incomplete or inaccurate information and forms, and failure to provide required supporting material
• documents not fully reflecting the client's instructions or the intended outcome.

Other concerns related to how matters were progressed and managed. This included missed steps, incomplete preparation, insufficient evidence gathering, and poor management of key stages in the matter.

Reports described a range of impacts, including delays, disputes, reduced confidence and additional stress. Some reports suggested these issues may have affected a client's ability to progress their matter.