Almost a third of the expected applications for practising certificate renewal have yet to be started with just four working days until the deadline.

Despite repeated pleas from the Solicitors Regulation Authority for early applications, 31% of last year’s PC holders had yet to even start their renewal by this morning, the SRA said today.

Of the 23,497 applications in the system, 13,079 have been completed. The remaining 13,000 expected applicants have until Friday to complete the renewal and make the payment.

It is understood that yesterday was the busiest day for applications since the system began accepting them on 1 November. Aside from a minor glitch at the start, the online renewal system has performed much better than in its debut last year.