I write regarding your opinion piece of 24 April headlined ‘PC fee proposal falls flat’.

There is another group of solicitors who will be disadvantaged by the new flat-rate practising certificate fee – those who, like me, maintain a certificate for the sole purpose of advising charities, relatives and friends without remuneration (and hence without the need for insurance) and to act occasionally as a commissioner for oaths.

I have not objected to paying the reduced rate fee in the past. That was the system, so one went along with it. But as the Solicitors Regulation Authority has gone to the trouble of conducting a review, which I support in principle as a former in-house general counsel, why has it not been rather more rigorous in identifying all relevant groups of solicitors who take out practising certificates? I doubt that the solicitors in my category require much, if any, regulation. So why rush each of us for £510?

May I, through your columns, ask the SRA to think again?

Simon Osborne, solicitor, Old Isleworth