SRA to cut 80 jobs in preparation for ABSs
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is slashing its staff headcount ahead of the introduction of alternative business structures (ABSs), cutting numbers from 640 to 560.
Antony Townsend
The body will begin regulating and licensing ABSs from 6 October this year.
According to chief executive Antony Townsend the restructure will see the authority focus on three key regulatory activities: authorisation, supervision, and enforcement.
In a statement released this morning he said: “This is the final stage of our programme to equip the SRA to be a modern, risk-based regulator, capable of meeting the needs of consumers of legal services in a radically changing legal sector.
“A combination of retrained staff, the targeted appointment of new staff members with new skills, and the replacement of our old and inefficient IT systems, will enable us to deliver effective and efficient regulation with a lower cost base than before, to the timetable to which we are committed.”
Senior management at the regulator informed staff of the changes yesterday. While the plan is to redeploy existing staff, the regulator anticipates that redundancies will be inevitable as part of the streamlining process.
Townsend added: “The new structure will not only improve internal clarity and accountabilities, but also make it easier for those who deal with us to understand responsibilities in the organisation.”
Readers' comments (1)
Patrick Stevens | 16-Feb-2011 11:55 am
This gives little chance of proper scrutiny of all the crooks who will doubtless jump at the chance of setting up a law firm and getting access to a client account for either raiding it or money laundering purposes.
From what I've seen the regulators have grossly underestimated the extent to which law firms will be attractive to professional criminals.
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