Costs Lawyer CPD Requirements: 12 Points, the Mandatory Template and the CLSB Audit

Costs Lawyers are a regulated legal profession with their own regulator, their own practising certificate and their own CPD scheme, and that scheme is not a miniature version of the SRA's. It is a points requirement wrapped in a mandatory planning and reflection process, enforced through the practising certificate and audited by random selection every year.

This guide sets out what the Costs Lawyer Standards Board requires, as the CLSB publishes it, for Costs Lawyers and the firms that employ them. One change matters immediately: from 2026 it is mandatory to use the CLSB's own template to plan and record CPD. A firm's in-house CPD log no longer satisfies the audit requirement on its own.

Twelve points a year — and what a point is

Under CPD Rule 1.3, a Costs Lawyer must achieve at least 12 CPD points each practising year. Rule 3.1 makes a point equal to one full hour, and part hours count proportionately: one hour forty-five minutes is 1.75 points, thirty minutes is 0.5 points. Twelve points therefore means twelve hours.

Two features of the current scheme are worth noting because older guidance describes the opposite. All points caps and activity categories have been abolished, so there is no limit on how much of the twelve comes from any one type of activity. And all of it can be done remotely if that suits you.

There is no carry-over. CPD achieved in one year cannot be carried over or otherwise attributed to the following year, so a heavy year buys nothing in the next.

The process the points sit inside

The hours are the easy part. The CLSB requires a four-step cycle, and the audit tests the cycle rather than the total:

1. Identify your development needs
2. Set objectives — and the CLSB is specific that objectives should be set at the start of the practising year, not reconstructed at the end
3. Undertake the CPD, pitched at a level appropriate to your development needs (Rule 3.3)
4. Evaluate and record it by reflecting on the extent to which you achieved those objectives

The CLSB suggests four development areas — legal and technical competence; professional ethics and behaviour; dealing appropriately with clients and third parties; and management. These are suggestions. Asked directly whether CPD must cover all four, the CLSB's answer is no.

What counts, and what explicitly does not

CPD Rule 1.1 defines it as "an activity over and above your routine practice to develop your skills, knowledge and professional standards". Rule 3.2 then excludes three things outright: routine practice work, chargeable client work, and general social media activity.

That first exclusion is the one that catches people. Learning a great deal from a difficult detailed assessment is not CPD. Neither is time you have billed.

The dates

The practising year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Renewal forms are emailed in early November and the renewal deadline is 30 November, with an automatic £30 administration fee for late applications. The application is not complete until payment is received, and the CLSB does not accept credit cards.

CPD is declared through the renewal form, so the practical deadline for the year's twelve points is the end of November rather than the end of December. The CLSB does allow activity booked for late November or December to be entered on the record in advance, provided it is booked before it is entered.

If a certificate is not renewed, the Costs Lawyer's name is removed from the Register at the start of the practising year and a reinstatement application is then required.

Audit: random, annual, and it asks for the reflection

The CLSB audits. Individual Costs Lawyers are selected randomly each year, and as a general rule those who were selected for and passed an audit in the previous year are excluded from the pool. Targeted audits also happen where supervision raises a concern about CPD compliance — the CLSB gives being subject to practising conditions as its example. Selection is notified by email.

What an audit asks for is the point: evidence of your assessment of training needs, your objectives and your evaluation, using the mandatory CLSB template. A list of courses attended does not answer it. The CLSB does not publish the size of the audit sample, and it does not state a retention period for CPD records anywhere on its CPD or practising certificate pages.

What happens if you fall short

The CLSB's stated first step is conciliatory: it will work with you to understand why an audit was failed, and "you will always have a chance to explain your situation". Escalation follows non-cooperation rather than error — "non-cooperation or persistent failure to address issues will be dealt with under our Disciplinary Rules and Procedures".

But the structural position is firm. Compliance with the CPD Rules is a condition of practising under the Practising Rules, and failure to comply means a practising certificate "could be revoked or made subject to conditions". Under Practising Rule 3.4 the CLSB can impose conditions either when a certificate is issued or during its currency.

A certificate can only be issued to a Costs Lawyer with fewer than twelve points in two situations: part-year working under CPD Rule 1.4, or exceptional circumstances under Rule 4.1 with evidence supplied alongside the application.

Where sanctions actually come from

The CLSB's policy statement on enforcement and sanctions (version 3, 26 August 2024) supplements the Disciplinary Rules and Procedures and the Practising Rules, and is explicit that those documents take precedence over the policy.

The sanctions available under the Disciplinary Rules are a warning letter, a written undertaking, conditions on a practising certificate, a financial penalty, suspension for a fixed term, and permanent revocation. They can be imposed by the CLSB or agreed with the Costs Lawyer. Separately, under the Practising Rules the CLSB can refuse an application, revoke a certificate or impose conditions.

CPD failure is not a standalone disciplinary offence. It appears instead as an indicator of a lack of competency — "failure to demonstrate compliance with the CPD Rules" — and as an aggravating factor where a Costs Lawyer "failed to consider or address their training and development needs in line with the CPD Rules". The remedies listed for competency concerns include a condition requiring CPD activity to be reported more frequently than the usual annual requirement, and aligning CPD objectives with the competency area in question.

On health, the policy states plainly that the CLSB "will not take regulatory action against a Costs Lawyer just because they have a health condition".

Part years, absence and returning

CPD Rule 1.4 pro-rates the requirement at one point per full month worked, which covers the newly qualified, the reinstated, part-year working and long-term leave. Evidence — an employer's or healthcare letter — is provided at the next certificate application. A caution on sourcing: the CLSB's rule wording says "each full month" while one of its FAQs says "each month (or part month)". Worth confirming which applies to a specific case.

Returning after a gap of more than two years triggers an enhanced competency check, satisfied either by twelve CPD points in the preceding twelve months plus CPD objectives, or by supervised practice. Returning within two years requires CPD for the last practising year in which you were regulated.

Parental leave is treated as a fee matter rather than a CPD one — the CLSB offers a dispensation of up to one full year's practising certificate fee, capped at the fee due on reinstatement. No CPD reduction specific to parental leave is published, so the Rule 1.4 monthly pro-rating is the route. Part-time working is not addressed at all.

Providing CPD training to others

The CLSB accredits individual Costs Lawyers, not organisations, to provide CPD training. Eligibility requires a current practising certificate held for at least four years. Accreditation costs £125, lasts three years, and renewal involves submitting sample training materials. Accredited providers can be audited on application and during accreditation, and accreditation can be revoked for failing to comply with the rules or failing to co-operate fully with an audit.

Importantly, accreditation is optional: since 1 January 2021 it has not been mandatory to be accredited in order to provide CPD training. So a Costs Lawyer can count CPD from an unaccredited provider, and a firm choosing a training supplier is not restricted to the accredited list.

How this compares

Twelve points with a mandatory reflective template, audited by random selection, is a materially different regime from the hours-and-verifiability model north of the border — our guide to the Law Society of Scotland's 20-hour requirement sets that out — and from the outcomes-based approach the SRA takes, now itself under consultation on mandatory learning records. A multi-disciplinary firm employing solicitors and Costs Lawyers is running two schemes with different years, different evidence and different audit mechanics.

For structured development that produces the objectives-and-evaluation record the CLSB audit actually asks for, see our CPD programmes.

Sources and limits: written from the CLSB's CPD page, practising certificates page and CPD training accreditation page, and its policy statement on enforcement and sanctions (version 3, 26 August 2024), all read in October 2026. The CPD Rules, CPD Guidance, Practising Rules, Ongoing Competency Framework and Disciplinary Rules and Procedures were not read in full and may qualify points above; the CLSB describes its CPD Guidance as the first port of call. The practising certificate fee is not published on the CLSB's page and varies annually. General information about a published regime, not legal advice.