To respond to all of Andrew Hopper’s and Greg Treverton-Jones’s points about the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s prosecution policy, ‘Ticking all the boxes?’ (see [2010] Gazette, 1 April, 12), would be a major undertaking, but two key issues need addressing.

First, it is simply not true that the SRA prosecutes ‘on the basis that any breach of the rules is deserving of a sanction’. On the contrary, the vast majority of rule breaches that we identify attract no formal sanction at all and are frequently addressed by using guidance and advice.

Second, the SRA’s proposals for outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) – on which we are launching a debate throughout the profession from May – are indeed designed to ensure that both the SRA as the regulator and members of the profession concentrate upon issues which matter to clients rather than the minutiae of over-detailed rules.

Part of OFR will be the publication of a new draft enforcement policy, on which we shall consult – I think it a safe bet that early respondents to that consultation will be messrs Treverton-Jones and Hopper.

Antony Townsend, Chief executive, SRA