After a long wait, in October 2015 the SRA finally published the wording for the annual declaration required under its new approach to continuing competence:

“I have reflected on my practice and addressed any identified learning and development needs.”

Practising Certificate Renewal Exercise (PCRE)

The declaration is made on the Practising Certificate Renewal Exercise (PCRE) forms. Either individual solicitors, or entities who complete the PCRE in bulk, can make the declaration.

The SRA will monitor PCRE forms to identify those solicitors who have not confirmed that they have reflected on their practice and addressed learning and development needs. They will use this information, along with other information they hold or receive, to explore concerns that they may have with the competence or standard of service provided by a solicitor.

Solicitors who have chosen to move to the new approach this year will make their first declaration (for the 2014-2015 practice year) in October 2016. In October 2017, there will be no declaration required for 2015-2016 as the SRA shifts to align the declaration with the current PCRE year. In that year a declaration will be required by all solicitors for the new approach for the 2016-2017 year. Despite the fact that no declaration will be required for the 2015-2016 year, this does not remove the regulatory responsibility for all solicitors either to comply with the old approach by doing 16 hours of CPD or to adopt the new approach.

As a reminder, under the new approach, a solicitor must:

• Reflect on the quality of their practice by reference to the Competence Statement
• Plan and address learning and development needs based on the reflection
• Record and evaluate the learning activity
• Make an annual declaration to confirm that they have completed the above

In a poll we conducted on 2nd April we found that over 50% of firms plan to adopt the new approach early (either this year or next year). However, in recent conversations with firms, we found that some firms were discouraged from actually adopting the new approach due to the fact that they had not seen the final wording of the annual declaration.

Who needs an SRA Practising Certificate?

You need a practicing certificate if:

• You are carrying on any reserved legal activities as defined in section 12 of the Legal Services Act 2007 or supervising an unqualified person carrying on such activities
• You are employed in connection with the provision of legal services by a person falling within section 1A of the Solicitors Act 1974
• You act as a solicitor 
• You are on the roll and employed to provide legal services by a solicitor or other individual who is authorised to provide reserved legal services
• You do not hold an exemption under Section 88 of the Solicitors Act 1974

SRA Practising Certificate and Registration Renewals

Practicing certificates must be renewed once a year. Each year, the SRA publicises the renewal period, which usually lasts for about a month.

Certificates can be renewed online.

Cost of renewals

The annual practising fees are set with agreement from the Legal Services Board under Section 51 of the Solicitors Act 1974. The fees go to funding the SRA’s activities, and must be paid in order for individuals and firms to practice.

There is a Compensation Fund to which individuals and firms can contribute to meet the cost of claims and running the fund.

The fee for an individual renewal was £306 for 2021/2022.This includes the regulatory fee of £266 and a compensation fund contribution of £40. For practising certificates issued part way through the year the fees are pro-rated.

Bulk renewals

Some organisations do a bulk renewal for all their solicitors. If your application has been submitted as part of a bulk renewal, you can generate and download it from mySRA on the SRA’s website. Once you have generated your certificate, you can download or view it any time by going to “My profile – Applications and Documents” in the mySRA section of the SRA website.

How to adopt the new approach

VinciWorks has recently released an update to its Learning Management System that enables firms to comply with the SRA’s changes to CPD:

Schedule a demo

Background presentation – the SRA’s new approach

Over the past year, we have written a series of posts on the SRA’s new approach to CPD. That information can also be reviewed and shared in the presentation below: