Solicitors Regulation Authority to lift 'restrictive' limit on trainee intake

Partner to trainee ratio to be abolished in favour of 'holistic' approach to training quality

Restrictions on trainee intake will be lifted under proposals unveiled yesterday by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in a move which the regulator says could breathe new life into the junior end of the profession.

Removing restrictions on the number of trainees a firm can recruit, the SRA said, "will have no negative impacts, and could possibly encourage firms to offer more training contracts".

After peaking at 6,303 in 2008, the number of training contracts failed to their lowest last year with only 4,869 registered with the SRA.

Current rules require that the ratio of trainees to partners or senior solicitors should be no greater than 2:1, and that a training principal should have had a practising certificate for at least five years continuously.

The rules are intended to ensure that there is adequate supervision of trainees but the regulator said there was "no data to support the assumption that the quality of training and supervision is assured by specifying minimum numbers and it may unjustifiably restrict the number of training places available".

It also pointed to the large number of applications for waivers it granted on the basis that there was not risk to the quality of training.

The present requirements were "restrictive" and created "artificial barriers and unnecessary bureaucracy", the SRA said. Instead, the proposal goes on, "Our regulations should reflect our focus on the quality of the training, not artificial, arbitrary measures such as the ratio of trainees to partners and number of practising certificates."

The regulator said it was drafting a new set of criteria applicable to all legal services providers that would "look more holistically at their resources and infrastructure."

The SRA also hopes to allow students to take up their LPC and consequent training contract without first enrolling and making a declaration of character with the regulator.

Under the present system, approximately three per cent of the c.9,000 individuals enrolled every year present a suitability issue, with a small percentage of those are eventually refused enrolment.

Instead, prospective candidates will be asked to disclose any character and suitability issues they may have under new regulation 6.

The steps which are part of the SRA's Red Tape initiative are a bid to "reduce unnecessary regulation and enable more flexibility", says Julie Brannan, Director of Education and Training at the SRA.

The number of training contracts fell 10.5 per cent last year to 4,869, compared with 5,441 in 2011.

In contrast, the number of new graduate members of CILEx rose from 355 to 547.