Cost of Solicitors Practicing Certificate to come down by £30

Cost of Solicitors Practicing Certificate to come down by £30

The cost of the practising certificate looks set to come down after the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority published a joint consultation on bringing the price down to £290 per year per solicitor for 2016-17.

The reduction of 9% amounts to around £30. the Law Society say this will mean the cost has reduced by 24% since 2014. Fees are expected to meet 73% of the Law Society’s costs, with the rest met by commercial income (£15.3 million), the SRA’s regulatory income (£3.5 million, recoveries (£12.5 million) and £1.7 million taken from reserves.

The consultation ends on 7th July with the findings presented to the Law Society Council on 14th July.

Paul Philip, SRA chief executive, said: “Value for money, and transparency about how we use the profession’s money, is fundamental. I am pleased to be able to say that we have reduced the cost of our work very significantly since 2014 and we are committed to further reduction.

“This underpins our wider reform programme, reducing bureaucracy and costs and helping to address the affordability and accessibly of legal services for the public.”

Law Society chief executive Catherine Dixon said: “Solicitors and firms pay annual fees toward the cost of regulation, discharging the profession’s public interest role, representing, promoting and supporting solicitors. We are being clearer about our costs to the profession and what the PC fee pays for, and we really want to hear from solicitors about our proposals.

“Our work underpins a growing legal services sector currently worth £25.7 billion annually to the economy. This year we have published much more information about the different work the Law Society professional body and the Solicitors Regulation Authority do. We have also published a clear breakdown of how the funding is split between the Law Society, the SRA and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal and contributions toward the costs of Legal Services Board and the Legal Ombudsman.”
The survey can be viewed here with the consultation available to view here.

Josh Morris

Josh is the Journalist for the Today's Group and writes many of the articles for Today's Conveyancer. He graduated with a degree in Physics from Cardiff University in 2009 before training as a journalist. He has previously written for The Times, The Mirror and The Daily Express.

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