SRA Standards and Regulations: The Structure, the Competence Duties, and the Ethics Hours Being Proposed

The SRA Handbook was replaced by the SRA Standards and Regulations on 25 November 2019. Six years on, a lot of firms still navigate it by searching for the rule they half-remember. This guide maps the rulebook, identifies precisely which paragraphs carry competence, training and supervision duties, and sets out the change the SRA consulted on in 2026 that would add a mandatory annual ethics requirement for every solicitor in England and Wales.

What the rulebook contains

The Standards and Regulations is not one document. It is around two dozen separate instruments. The ones most firms need are:

• The SRA Principles
• The SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs, RFLs and RSLs
• The SRA Code of Conduct for Firms
• The SRA Accounts Rules
• The SRA Authorisation of Firms Rules
• The SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations
• The SRA Transparency Rules
• The SRA Indemnity Insurance Rules
• The SRA Glossary

Alongside those sit the Application, Notice, Review and Appeal Rules, the Assessment of Character and Suitability Rules, the Education, Training and Assessment Provider Regulations, the Financial Services (Scope) and (Conduct of Business) Rules, the Overseas and Cross-border Practice Rules, the Regulatory and Disciplinary Procedure Rules, the Statutory Trust Rules, the Roll, Registers and Publication Regulations, the Indemnity Fund Rules, the Compensation Fund Rules and the SQE Assessment Regulations.

Dates matter here, because they tell you what you are reading. The Principles and both Codes of Conduct are in effect from 11 April 2025, made by the SRA Board on 16 December 2024. The Accounts Rules and the Statutory Trust Rules still carry their original November 2019 date. The Authorisation of Firms Rules date from December 2023. The Education, Training and Assessment Provider Regulations were last updated on 1 October 2025.

One honest caveat: the Code and Principles pages carry no changelog, so what specifically changed in the version that took effect in April 2025 is not stated on the public pages. If a particular wording matters to a decision, read the current text rather than relying on a summary of the differences.

The seven Principles

The Principles are the top of the hierarchy and they are short. You act:

• in a way that upholds the constitutional principle of the rule of law, and the proper administration of justice
• in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the solicitors’ profession and in legal services provided by authorised persons
• with independence
• with honesty
• with integrity
• in a way that encourages equality, diversity and inclusion
• in the best interests of each client

They apply to authorised individuals, authorised firms, and their managers and employees. Where Principles conflict, those safeguarding the wider public interest — the rule of law and public confidence — take precedence over an individual client’s interests. That ordering is the single most consequential sentence in the introduction and the one most often forgotten under client pressure.

The Code of Conduct for Solicitors: where competence lives

The individuals’ Code has eight sections: maintaining trust and acting fairly; dispute resolution and proceedings; service and competence; client money and assets; referrals, introductions and separate businesses; conflict of interests, confidentiality and disclosure; cooperation and accountability; and a final section covering client identification, complaints handling, and client information and publicity.

Section 3, Service and competence, carries the core duties:

• 3.1 — act only on instructions from the client or someone properly authorised, and if in doubt that instructions reflect the client’s wishes, do not act until satisfied they do
• 3.2 — ensure the service provided to clients is competent and delivered in a timely manner
• 3.3 — maintain your competence to carry out your role and keep your professional knowledge and skills up to date
• 3.4 — consider and take account of the client’s attributes, needs and circumstances
• 3.5 — where you supervise or manage others providing legal services, you remain accountable for the work carried out through them and you effectively supervise work done for clients
• 3.6 — ensure the individuals you manage are competent for their role and keep their knowledge, skills and understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations up to date

Section 7 adds the accountability duties: 7.1 keep up to date with and follow the law and regulation governing the way you work; 7.2 be able to justify your decisions and actions to demonstrate compliance; 7.3 cooperate with the SRA and other regulators and ombudsmen.

Note what is absent. There is no paragraph in this Code headed training or CPD, and no hours requirement anywhere in it. The duty is to be competent and to be able to justify how you know that.

The Code of Conduct for Firms

The firms’ Code covers maintaining trust and acting fairly; compliance and business systems; cooperation and accountability; service and competence; client money and assets; conflicts, confidentiality and disclosure; the application of the individuals’ Code standards to firms; managers; and compliance officers.

The provisions that bite on training and supervision:

• 2.1 — have effective governance structures, arrangements, systems and controls in place
• 2.2 — keep records to demonstrate compliance
• 4.2 — ensure the service provided to clients is competent and timely, taking account of client attributes, needs and circumstances
• 4.3 — ensure managers and employees are competent to carry out their role, and keep their professional knowledge and skills, as well as their understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, up to date
• 4.4 — have an effective system for supervising clients’ matters
• 8.1 — if you are a manager, you are responsible for compliance by your firm with this Code, jointly and severally where managers share management responsibility
• 9.1 and 9.2 — the COLP and COFA duties

Paragraph 4.3 is the firm-level training obligation and it is broader than people assume: it covers managers as well as employees, and it covers understanding of ethical and regulatory obligations, not only legal knowledge. Paragraph 4.4 is the supervision system requirement — the practical content of which is covered in our guide to file review and supervision evidence, and the compliance officer roles in our guide to COLP and COFA responsibilities.

Separately, the Authorisation of Firms Rules require an authorised body to have at least one manager or employee, or to procure the services of an individual, who is a lawyer with a minimum of three years’ practice and who supervises the work the body undertakes.

Continuing competence as it stands

There is no CPD hours requirement. Since 2016 the regime has been declaration-based. Solicitors holding or intending to hold a practising certificate, and registered European and Swiss lawyers, declare at practising certificate renewal that they have an up-to-date understanding of their legal, ethical and regulatory obligations, have addressed identified learning needs, and are competent in their role.

The SRA sets out a five-step learning and development cycle: reflect on practice, identify learning needs, plan and address them, record the activity, and evaluate effectiveness. That last step is the one its own thematic reviews keep finding missing.

The benchmark is the Statement of Solicitor Competence, which with the Threshold Standard and the Statement of Legal Knowledge has four sections: A, ethics, professionalism and judgment; B, technical legal practice; C, working with other people; and D, managing themselves and their own work. Section A is the one to read closely — A2 requires maintaining the level of competence and legal knowledge needed to practise effectively, and A3 requires working within the limits of one’s competence.

A small drafting curiosity worth knowing if you cite it: the SRA’s competence statement page refers to the service and competence requirement at "paragraph 3.1" of the Code, whereas in the current Code those duties sit at 3.2 and 3.3. Cite the Code paragraph, not the cross-reference.

The change being proposed: three hours of ethics discussion

This is the part firms should be planning for. The SRA consulted on strengthening its continuing competence approach between 22 April 2026 and 15 July 2026. The proposals, if adopted, would start from the 2027/28 practising year subject to Legal Services Board approval, with the first ethics declaration at practising certificate renewal in 2028.

What was proposed:

• Records showing how learning needs were identified and addressed, with evidence of learning and development retained for a minimum of three years. The SRA says it will not prescribe the form of the record.
• A strengthened practising certificate declaration.
• Annual mandatory facilitated group discussions on professional ethics — a minimum total of three hours a year. Facilitators would need a current practising certificate or to be on the roll, at least three years’ practice since admission, and no regulatory or disciplinary record. Groups would be between three and twelve participants, and participation would be certified at practising certificate renewal.
• A new rule allowing the SRA to require some or all solicitors to complete specific learning and development where it identifies a competence concern, with a parallel rule for non-authorised persons in SRA-regulated organisations.

To be clear about status: this was a consultation, not a rule change. At the time of writing the Principles and both Codes still read as in effect from 11 April 2025, and the earliest proposed start is the 2027/28 practising year. But a three-year record retention requirement and a facilitated group discussion obligation are operational changes that need lead time, and firms that treat continuing competence as a tick-box at renewal will feel them most.

One further 2026 development: the SRA’s effective supervision guidance was updated in June 2026, reflecting a Court of Appeal decision from March 2026 on unauthorised people carrying out conduct-of-litigation tasks under an authorised person’s direction and control.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPD hours do solicitors need?

None. The regime is declaration-based: you declare at renewal that you have addressed your learning needs and are competent. The 2026 consultation proposed adding three hours of facilitated ethics discussion a year from the 2027/28 practising year, subject to approval.

Which paragraph requires firms to train their people?

Paragraph 4.3 of the Code of Conduct for Firms, covering managers and employees and extending to understanding of ethical and regulatory obligations. Paragraph 3.6 of the individuals’ Code places the equivalent duty on those who manage others.

What replaced the SRA Handbook?

The SRA Standards and Regulations, from 25 November 2019.

Which version of the Codes is current?

The versions in effect from 11 April 2025, made by the SRA Board on 16 December 2024. The pages carry no changelog, so read the current text rather than a summary of changes.

Does the rulebook set a supervision model?

No. Paragraph 4.4 of the firms’ Code requires an effective system; the SRA’s guidance states there is no single model and the approach must be risk-based and justifiable.

Where do quality schemes fit?

They sit above the rulebook, not instead of it. Lexcel and the Specialist Quality Mark both add documented training and supervision requirements the Codes leave to the firm’s judgement.

Preparing for a stricter competence regime

Whatever the final shape of the 2026 proposals, the direction is clear: more evidence, retained for longer, with ethics treated as a distinct and recurring obligation rather than something absorbed into technical training. The firms that will find that easy are the ones already recording learning needs, activity and evaluation rather than only attendance.

Learnsignal builds CPD and compliance training for professional firms with records designed for exactly that — including ethics, conflicts and client care and AML material, and the client money duties in our guide to the SRA Accounts Rules. To see what is available, explore our CPD courses or see pricing for teams.