"Keeping of the roll" modernisation plans shelved
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has dropped plans to modernise the “keeping of the roll process”.
Solicitors without a practising certificate pay £20 to remain on the roll. The SRA is due to carry out a “keeping of the roll exercise” in April. It originally wanted solicitors to file their details via the online “mySRA” system, but the process was dogged by problems.
SRA chief executive Antony Townsend confirmed last week that the keeping of the roll will now be a paper exercise.
He says: “At present, given the current infrastructure, we cannot be sufficiently confident that putting keeping of the roll online would not cause difficulties for those completing the process, and we are determined to avoid this. Carrying out further work to make the system stable for keeping of the roll could detract from the significant progress we are making with our suppliers on enhancements for practising certificate renewals and we are not prepared to take this risk.”
The SRA will write to everyone eligible to stay on the roll in September, enclosing an application form.
