News from the Board

Reflections on our January Board meeting – Anna Bradley, SRA Chair

09 February 2026

January's Board meeting not only represented the beginning of a new year, but the start of a new era as it was the first formal Board meeting with our new Chief Executive, Sarah Rapson, at the helm.

Sarah's experience of regulation across multiple sectors, is already bringing us the fresh insight we need and hoped for.

Fresh thinking is essential as the legal market is undergoing rapid change and new risks are being created for consumers. A fast-changing market, requires us to respond at pace and means we need to look to regulate in new ways. As we are doing, for instance, in response to the unprecedented issues in the high-volume consumer claims market.

Increase in reports of misconduct

Another area of rapid change is in the sustained increase in reports of misconduct. This was a core focus of our meeting discussion.

Reports rose by a third last year. And the increase is accelerating – at the end of the last year, the average monthly reports were 80% higher than the previous year's average. This is resulting in more investigations, with the possibility of more enforcement action.

As we have said before, no single theme is driving this rise, though multiple regulators and ombudsman are seeing similar increases in reports and complaints. There is evidence that people tapping into support from artificial intelligence (AI) may be one reason for this. In itself, AI can create issues – we heard that AI supported reporting can sometimes result in confusing and difficult-to-action reports.

As a Board we are assuring ourselves that we are responding appropriately, with a focus on both quality and timeliness. We heard about improved ways of working, more quality checks and additional resource all making a positive difference. For instance, 28% more cases were resolved in 24/25 compared to the previous year.

But the ongoing rise in volumes means that we are still considerably below some of our target KPIs. So, it's important we explore solutions from all angles.

For instance, we are improving resources for those making reports. We are making it clearer what we will investigate and the type of information that will help us progress cases, as well as developing a new online reporting form.

We are exploring using AI ourselves, with appropriate checks and balances, to help us review information more efficiently. And our investigation teams now have access to a new 'law firm profiler' tool which enables them to access key information more quickly and drive consistent decision making.

This should all help, but we will be monitoring progress closely. Over the longer term, we are considering whether more fundamental changes to our approach will be needed. We need to be confident that we are focusing on the issues and cases that matter most; stepping-in where we can make the biggest impact protecting the public. Our data and intelligence programme will help us to identify the biggest risks to consumers.

Our strategy

These bigger, longer-term questions tied in with a discussion about our corporate strategy.

One of Sarah's priorities since her arrival, has been getting out and about to hear from as many people as possible to understand what the profession and the public needs from us. And getting the basics right has been a consistent theme of feedback.

The Board recognises there is a lot of work we need to progress this year to improve what we currently do and make sure we have the right foundations in place for better and different ways of doing things in the future. Foundations that will help us deal with the challenges of a rapidly changing sector. Whether it's addressing the surge in misconduct reports or improving how we spot and act on risks, we must be operationally excellent.

Getting these foundational steps right will be a core focus this year.

We will provide an update in early Spring as to what that means in practice, including how we are responding to feedback on where we can improve.

In parallel with this focus on delivery and immediate actions, we want to have a wider conversation with people and organisations on our longer-term strategy. Whether it's the impact of AI, the trend of law firm consolidation, changing public expectations or shifting risks, there will be a lot to discuss about where we should head over the medium to long term.