An official quarterly report on the state of the legal profession is to be released for the first time this year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority revealed this week.

The ‘snapshot’ will include the number of firms opening and closing and the number of solicitors practising at a given time, as well as details of interventions. The SRA would not say when the first snapshot would be available.

The number of legal disciplinary partnerships – which can begin operating from 1 March – will also figure in the statistics, as will the number of traditional partnerships that choose to convert to LDPs.

Meanwhile, the number of solicitors applying for a practising certificate rose by 2.3% in 2008, compared with 3.3% in 2007, year-end figures reveal. The SRA, which processes applications, said the number of requests for certificates rose by 2,570 to 111,008. Income from the £995 practising certificate makes up the majority of the Law Society’s budget.