The Solicitors Regulation Authority replaced mandatory CPD hours with an outcomes-based continuing competence framework on 1 November 2016. As of March 2026, more than 216,000 solicitors are on the SRA roll and must comply with this framework (SRA, "Regulated Population Statistics," sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026). You still have a clear CPD obligation. It just looks different from the old 16-hour quota.
This guide explains what SRA continuing competence requires in 2026, what counts, how to build a defensible record, and what the SRA's April 2026 consultation could change for your practice.
Key Takeaways
- The SRA requires ongoing competence, not a fixed number of hours. Most firms set internal targets of 16 to 25 hours per year.
- Any structured learning that genuinely develops your competence counts: formal courses, reading, peer review, writing, and mentoring.
- Your annual declaration at practising certificate renewal is a signed professional statement. It needs contemporaneous records to support it.
- The SRA received 12,046 reports about solicitors in 2024. Ethics and professionalism accounted for 52% of all competence-related reports since 2019.
- A new SRA consultation open until 15 July 2026 proposes mandatory record-keeping and a three-hour annual ethics discussion requirement.
What Does SRA Continuing Competence Actually Require?
The SRA does not prescribe a minimum number of CPD hours. Instead, it requires solicitors to reflect on their practice, identify development needs, address those needs through appropriate learning, and declare annually that they have done so. This is an outcomes-based model. What matters is whether you are competent, not whether you sat through a set number of lectures.
The SRA's Statement of Solicitor Competence (sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026) sets out four domains against which you are expected to assess yourself each year.
The Four Competence Domains
| Domain | What it covers |
|---|---|
| A. Ethics, professionalism and judgment | Acting with integrity, recognising ethical issues, resisting pressure to condone unethical behaviour, respecting diversity |
| B. Technical legal practice | Using multiple information sources, reaching reasoned decisions supported by evidence, analysing documents, obtaining information through effective questioning |
| C. Working with other people | Communicating clearly and effectively, building client and colleague relationships, collaborating well |
| D. Managing yourself and your own work | Initiating, planning, prioritising, and managing work activities efficiently, on time, and to the required standard |
What "Reflecting on Practice" Really Means
Reflection is not a checkbox exercise. The SRA expects you to actively consider where your competence falls short of these standards, not simply list the courses you attended. A senior partner in a stable practice area may require fewer formal training hours than a junior solicitor moving into a new specialism. The SRA's framework is deliberately contextual: your development plan should match your actual practice and any gaps you identify in it.
How Many CPD Hours Do Solicitors Need in Practice?
The SRA has set no minimum hour requirement since November 2016, but the legal market has converged on informal benchmarks that most firms treat as working minimums. Understanding these norms gives you a defensible target even if your firm has not published a formal CPD policy.
While the SRA does not specify hours, most law firms set their own internal requirements for fee earners:
| Firm type | Typical annual target | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Large City / Magic Circle | 20 to 25 hours | Often with minimum accredited and ethics components |
| Mid-size regional | 16 to 20 hours | May require a proportion from accredited providers |
| Small firm or high street | 16 hours | Old mandatory threshold used as a practical baseline |
| Sole practitioner | 16 hours minimum | No firm policy; this is the recognised defensible floor |
If your firm has no published CPD policy, aim for at least 16 hours per year. That was the old mandatory threshold. It remains the benchmark that the SRA and professional indemnity insurers recognise.
What Counts as CPD for Solicitors?
Any structured learning that genuinely develops your professional competence counts toward your continuing competence obligations. The SRA takes a broad view, recognising that professional development happens in many forms beyond formal classroom training.
The SRA's continuing competence guidance (sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026) groups eligible activity into three broad categories.
Formal Structured Learning
- Accredited CPD courses, in-person and online
- Webinars and virtual conferences
- Law Society and specialist bar association programmes
- University short courses and postgraduate modules
Practice-Based Learning
- In-house training delivered by senior colleagues
- Peer review and case supervision discussions
- Reading legal updates, journals, and regulatory guidance
- Compliance training covering AML, data protection, and equality and diversity
Contribution-Based Learning
- Writing articles or legal commentary
- Delivering training to colleagues or clients
- Mentoring junior solicitors
- Pro bono casework in a new area of law
The key question to ask: does this activity genuinely develop my competence? An accredited course you attended but did not engage with is worth less than a peer supervision session where you grappled with a difficult case. The SRA cares about outcomes, not certificates.
How Should Solicitors Record CPD to Satisfy the SRA?
The SRA does not prescribe a specific recording format, but it expects records that demonstrate genuine reflection rather than a log of hours attended. A defensible CPD record entry captures six fields for every activity.
| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Date | When the activity took place |
| Activity | Name of the course, webinar, or learning activity |
| Provider | Who delivered it, or "self-directed" for independent reading |
| Duration | Hours completed, rounded to the nearest 0.5h |
| Reflection | One to three sentences: what you learned and how it applies to your practice |
| Category | Ethics, technical legal, client care, management, or other domain |
The reflection field is what transforms a log into a portfolio. Even a single sentence makes a material difference. For example: "This session clarified the updated disclosure obligations under the 2025 Practice Direction. I will revise our standard client care letters to reflect the new requirement." That one sentence shows the learning was meaningful and practice-relevant.
Keep CPD records for a minimum of five years. The SRA can request evidence at any time, including during firm visits, conduct investigations, and thematic reviews (SRA, "Understanding Your Continuing Competence Requirements", sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026).
What Are You Actually Signing in the Annual Declaration?
Every solicitor makes a continuing competence declaration when renewing their practising certificate each year. In the 2025 assessment period, 16 solicitors did not confirm they met the declaration requirement. Of those, 10 had practice conditions imposed restricting their work (SRA, "Annual Assessment of Continuing Competence 2025," sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026). The declaration is not a formality.
The exact wording commits you to having:
"reflected on the standard of my practice and the work I do, and taken any steps I identify as being necessary to maintain and develop my competence."
If your CPD records cannot support that statement because they are incomplete, undated, or consist only of attendance certificates with no reflection notes, that is a professional conduct risk. Contemporaneous records are what turn the declaration from a rubber stamp into a statement you can defend.
The SRA practising certificate renewal process (sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026) runs annually through mySRA. Review your CPD log before submitting the declaration, not after.
What Happens During an SRA Competence Review?
The SRA does not routinely audit individual solicitors' CPD records, but the volume of reports it receives is rising. In 2024, the SRA received 12,046 reports about solicitors, up from 11,177 in 2023, a 7.8% year-on-year increase (SRA, "Annual Assessment of Continuing Competence 2024," sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026). Ethics and professionalism failures accounted for 52% of all competence-related reports received since 2019 (SRA, consultation document, April 2026, sra.org.uk).
The SRA can request your CPD evidence in several circumstances:
- During a firm visit or thematic review
- As part of an investigation into a conduct complaint
- Following a regulatory referral from your firm
- As part of the SRA's general supervision of regulated individuals
When that request arrives, you need to produce records that show genuine, ongoing development across the year. A folder of certificates assembled in the week before renewal will not satisfy a reviewer looking for evidence of reflection throughout a full practice year.
Best practice for audit readiness:
- Maintain a live CPD log, updated within a week of each activity
- Store attendance certificates alongside the relevant log entries
- Conduct a mid-year review against your firm's annual target
- Before your annual declaration, review your log and confirm it reflects actual practice development
What Are the Proposed Changes to SRA CPD in 2026?
The SRA launched a public consultation on 24 April 2026 that proposes the most significant changes to the continuing competence framework since it was introduced in 2016. The consultation is open until 15 July 2026. New obligations, if adopted, are likely to take effect in 2027.
The three headline proposals are (SRA, "Strengthening Continuing Competence", consultation document, April 2026):
- Mandatory record-keeping: Solicitors would be required to maintain a formal written record of their learning and development activity, moving record-keeping from guidance to a binding obligation.
- Mandatory annual ethics discussion: A minimum of three hours of facilitated ethics discussion each year, structured and documented.
- SRA power to direct targeted learning: The SRA would gain authority to require specific learning in identified risk areas. Reports involving criminal law rose 28% in the 2024 assessment period. Family law reports rose 25% and landlord and tenant law reports rose 49%.
If your firm's CPD processes are currently informal, now is the time to formalise them. The Law Society's continuing competence guidance (lawsociety.org.uk, retrieved May 2026) provides a practical framework for structuring your approach while the consultation is still open.
Why Aren't Spreadsheets Enough for CPD Records?
Most solicitors track CPD in one of three ways: a firm-provided spreadsheet, a personal Excel file, or a folder of certificates reviewed every December. All three share the same failure: reconstruction bias.
When you reconstruct twelve months of CPD in a single sitting, you undercount activities, omit reflection notes, and produce a log that looks procedural rather than genuine. The SRA distinguishes between a record maintained throughout the year and one assembled the week before renewal. The difference is visible in the dates, the specificity of the reflection notes, and the spread of activity across the year.
A contemporaneous digital log removes this problem. It makes the annual declaration straightforward rather than stressful, and produces audit-ready reports the moment the SRA requests them.
How Does CPD Registry Work for Solicitors?
CPD Registry is purpose-built for SRA-regulated solicitors who need their CPD records to be complete, accurate, and audit-ready at any point in the year. It loads SRA continuing competence categories automatically, tracks hours by domain, stores certificates against each log entry, and generates exportable PDF reports in the format firm supervisors and regulators expect.
Explore the full feature set or start the 30-day free trial. No credit card required. Log your first activity in under two minutes.
How Do CPD Requirements Differ Across UK Jurisdictions?
SRA regulation covers solicitors in England and Wales. Solicitors who practise across more than one UK jurisdiction must track requirements for each regulator separately.
Barristers (Bar Standards Board)
The BSB requires 45 CPD hours per year, with a minimum of 9 accredited hours. This is a more prescriptive model than the SRA. Hours and categories are logged in the BSB's myBar portal.
Scotland (Law Society of Scotland)
Scottish solicitors must complete 20 hours per year, including a mandatory ethics element. The Law Society of Scotland operates its own online CPD portal.
Northern Ireland (Law Society of Northern Ireland)
The Law Society of Northern Ireland requires 12 hours per year. Requirements and enforcement are separate from England and Wales.
If you practise under SRA regulation alongside any of the above jurisdictions, you must comply with each regulator's rules independently.
CPD Registry doesn't support barristers, Scotland, and Northern Ireland yet. Join the waitlist and we'll notify you when it launches.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many CPD hours do solicitors need in 2026?
The SRA does not mandate a specific number of CPD hours. It operates an outcomes-based continuing competence framework requiring solicitors to reflect on practice and take appropriate development steps. In practice, most law firms set internal targets of 16 to 25 hours per year. Some firms require 20 hours as a minimum for supervision purposes.
Do solicitors still have to do CPD?
Yes. The SRA replaced the old mandatory 16-hour requirement with the continuing competence framework in November 2016, but the obligation to maintain and develop competence remains. Solicitors make an annual declaration confirming they have reflected on practice and addressed competence gaps. Failure to maintain competence is a professional conduct matter with real enforcement consequences.
What is the best way to track CPD for solicitors?
The most reliable method is a contemporaneous digital log updated immediately after each activity, capturing the activity name, date, duration, provider, category, and a short reflection note. Purpose-built CPD software automates this and generates audit-ready reports, removing the need for year-end reconstruction.
What counts as CPD for solicitors?
Any structured learning that genuinely develops professional competence counts: accredited courses, webinars, conferences, legal reading, in-house training, peer review, supervision, pro bono casework, writing articles, and mentoring. The test is whether the activity genuinely contributes to your competence in your practice area.
What happens if I fail the annual competence declaration?
In the 2025 assessment period, 16 solicitors did not confirm they met the declaration requirement. Of those, 10 had conditions imposed restricting their practice (SRA, "Annual Assessment of Continuing Competence 2025," sra.org.uk, retrieved May 2026). Submitting an unsupported declaration is a professional conduct matter with potentially serious consequences.
Sources: SRA Continuing Competence | SRA Statement of Solicitor Competence | SRA Annual Assessment 2024 | SRA Annual Assessment 2025 | SRA 2026 Consultation | Law Society CPD Guidance