SRA chief pledges 'bonfire of education and training regulations'

The profession's regulatory framework must adapt to a changing environment and focus on assuring continuing competence, said SRA chief executive Antony Townsend said as he pledged a "bonfire of education and training regulations".

Townsend said the Solicitors Regulation Authority would shortly consult on a new framework "fit for the future" with a view to finalising proposals by the end of 2014.

Speaking at a Westminster Legal Policy Forum event considering the implementation of the Legal Education and Training Review, Townsend said the current 'one size fits all' approach to qualifying as a solicitor should be scrapped.

The new framework, he went on, should provide more diverse routes to qualification based on the skills and knowledge solicitors need to have from the first day of qualifying.

Under the new system, which the SRA will outline next week, the regulator will not prescribe routes to qualification but set the day-one skills, knowledge and attributes that a new solicitor must possess.

This would "remove barriers to access to and progression within the profession, improving mobility and diversity," said Townsend.

Universities, academic institutions and law firms should also take greater interest in the education and training of lawyers, the SRA chief executive added, saying it should be for them to "come up with effective routes to achieve the outcomes we set".

The SRA will also address long-standing concerns over the current hours-based CPD format and instead develop a new system concerned about assuring continuing competence;

"The current 'tick box' CPD system must go," Townsend said, arguing that "a system based on hours and points, inputs not outcomes, does little to ensure that those working in legal services continue to be competent to do so."

The third strand of the SRA's plan will involve "stripping away layers of regulation which neither assure quality nor enable excellence".

"I can confirm that a bonfire of education and training regulations will be underway by the end of the year," Towsend said. "This will enable us to target our activities on the issues that really matter in protecting the public interest, not bureaucratic processes that don't."