In January of 2007 the Solicitors Regulation Authority was put into place. It is meant to regulate the over 100,000 conveyancing solicitors in England and Wales. The idea is that it is suppose to protect the public and help to promote and make sure that they public is secure in their standards of behaviour and professional mannerisms that will be needed to make sure that the clients will get a good service that is honest. It used to be known as the Law Society Regulation Board but later had to change it's name to make sure that people understood it's independence. It is still a part of the Law Society of England and Wales for legal reasons only. But maintains that all operations are separate.
The Law Society has made sure that they delegate the regulatory powers to the Authority and made sure that it will exercise those functions in the public interest even though it will run independently. Sir David Clementi did a report which requested an recommended that any professional bodies that hold representative and regulatory responsibilities need to make sure that those roles are separate. To ensure that the public interest is always kept in the most important factor of all of this. Including in the effort to make sure that the public is treated fairly when dealing with conveyancing solicitors.
Functions that are involved are making sure that standards are put into place for academic standards as well as behavioural standards when one wishes to enter into the profession and they are to make sure that those standards are actually complied with. These standards are not the only ones that are looked at. They will help to make sure that they will stay in compliance by issuing Practising Certificates yearly, and making sure that they will investigate any allegations that someone is not meeting the standards that are set for the behaviour that is expected of people in this profession. Also they are to look into an possible breaches of the code of conduct and any other rules that might be being broken or bent. They will also perform an intervention in the public interest of any conveyancing solicitors that are harming the public in any way.
This authority was put into place to protect the public and make sure that they can trust someone to take care of their needs whenever the need it.
