The proposals focus on changes to the existing regulatory regime, in particular the approach to law firms’ obligations around accountants reports and the division of regulatory roles at firms, including strengthening the checks and balances provided by compliance officers.

The SRA’s recent spot-check exercise identified significant non-compliance with the rules on accountants’ reports and the decision to tighten up the rules follows criticism of the regulator over the events leading up to the collapse of Axiom Ince.

‘We want to strengthen the regime to gain better assurance that firms are complying with our accountant’s report requirements and that we have the information we need to identify when this is not happening. We want to achieve this in the most proportionate way possible and we would review how any new arrangements are working with this aim in mind,’ the SRA said.

T