Our Annual Reports for 2022/23
20 December 2024
This set of annual reports gives an insight into the core work we do to protect consumers and drive trust and confidence in legal services. They are a key part of making sure we are open and transparent, helping the profession and public understand the work we are doing, while sharing insights on changes in the sector.
Our enforcement activity is at the heart of our work as a public interest regulator. Whether it's a case involving a single solicitor or the Post Office Horizon scandal, with more than 20 solicitors and firms under investigation, it's vital we take action when things go wrong. We will step in to protect the public and uphold confidence and trust in legal services.
These reports show that the legal sector is changing. For instance, 2022/23 saw a significant increase in the number and size of firms failing. This included us carrying out our largest ever intervention, into the law firm Axiom Ince, where we uncovered a suspected fraud, with more than £60m of client money missing.
We have made sure consumers are protected in these cases, but we also need to respond to shifting risks in the sector. We launched a review of our approach to consumer protection at the start of 2024 to make sure it is fit for the future. Months of in-depth engagement with the public, profession, and consumer representative groups have informed our consultation which we launched in November. It focuses on potential changes to how and when law firms handle client money, and how this money is protected.
Another area we are alert to changes in the market is around high-volume consumer claims. Done well it can help more people access justice, but we have increasing concerns that there are some significant issues in this area of the market. This was illustrated in the case of SSB Group and Pure Legal, where we continue our investigations. However, it also raises much wider issues that cut across multiple sectors – from insurance to third-party litigation funding. We are working with others to understand and address these issues, so we can make sure consumers are appropriately protected.
We also recognise that we can do more to improve how we identify new and emerging risks in the sector, so we can step-in sooner to manage them. Effective use of our data to spot patterns is key to that, followed up by proactive and targeted work.
You will see that we have already stepped up our proactive work to make sure firms are meeting the standards we expect. More proactive firm visits – and more fines – has seen an increase in anti-money laundering compliance. And from the summer of 2023 we started using a new enforcement tool – fixed financial penalties – to move more swiftly where we find firms are falling short of our expectations.
We must make good, fair decisions, but it is in everyone's interest for cases to be concluded quickly. And I am pleased that we are making progress on that front. For instance, we have significantly reduced the number of longstanding investigations – down from 286 such cases in October 2022 to 59 in August 2024. There is still more to do to, but we are heading in the right direction.
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 of the SRA Board
