SRA 'not complacent' over PC renewals

Antony Townsend, chief executive of the SRA, has said the regulator is 'not complacent' as it launches this year's PC renewals today. The closing date is 14 December.

The deadline for renewing 2011 PCs did not expire until early March, after a series of delays '“ four months after the traditional deadline of the end of October.

The regulator announced in August that online renewals were being completely abandoned for solicitors wanting to keep their names on the roll, so that priority could be given to the next round of PC renewals.

'We are not complacent,' Townsend said today. 'There are bound to be glitches and some of you will '“ as with any IT system - experience difficulties.

'However, we hope that the processes we have put in place will allow you and your colleagues to have a more positive experience than last year.'

Townsend said that, learning from last year, the SRA had sought views on the wording of questions and demonstrated the revised online system to a wide range of law firms.

'We held sessions to ensure applications were more user-friendly, and provided detailed information to those responsible for competing applications in advance of today's launch date.'

A spokesman for the regulator said a 'range of support measures' had been put in place for the new round of PC renewals, including 'significant work' to the system.

These included providing detailed guidance to firms six weeks before the launch date, publishing details of bulk renewal form questions on the web in advance and extending the opening hours of the SRA contact centre, including 10am to 2.00pm on Saturday.

The spokesman added that the MySRA web pages were being redesigned and a recording of a webinar held on 24 October, in which participants were taken through the new procedure, was available. A further webinar is scheduled for 21 November.