KEITH VAZ: SRA must be accountable and work to an established timetable


The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) must speed up its investigations into law firms and should be accountable to an independent, government-appointed monitor, a leading backbench Labour MP told the Gazette this week.



Keith Vaz, member for Leicester East and chairman of the home affairs select committee, expressed concerns that SRA investigations could sometimes take years, saying that interventions in practices should run to established timetables.



He said: 'A lot of solicitors are concerned about timetables, and so are consumers, because at the moment no one knows when investigations are going to end. Some of these cases have gone on for years.'



Mr Vaz also repeated concerns that the SRA has failed to act quickly enough on claims that it investigates a disproportionate number of black and ethnic minority firms. During a Commons debate last week, he called on Justice Minister Bridget Prentice to appoint an independent monitor to oversee the work of the SRA.



'If firms say they are suffering discrimination, that needs to be dealt with immediately. If they have statistics suggesting there is a problem, they should not be carrying on with investigations,' he said. Ms Prentice told the House that oversight of the SRA will pass to the incoming Legal Services Board.



Mr Vaz did welcome the SRA's decision to form a working party with groups representing ethnic minority solicitors. This will set the parameters of a forthcoming review to examine whether the SRA's internal practices are weighted against ethnic minority firms. Anesta Weeks QC will chair the group and Ali Dizaei, president of the National Black Police Association, will act as vice-chairman. The working group will be overseen by Lord Herman Ouseley.



Sailesh Mehta, barrister and chairman of the Society of Asian Lawyers, said his members' confidence in the SRA was 'at an all-time low'. He added: 'The terms of reference of the group investigating the SRA will include the need to interrogate the statistics, to carry out a "cold case review" and also to look at the under-representation of [ethnic minority] board members on the SRA - currently only one out of 16.'



Antony Townsend, chief executive of the SRA, said his organisation was committed to promoting equality and diversity: 'I am sure there will be much to learn from this process, while will help us towards demonstrating we are a fair, proportionate and transparent regulator,' he said.



Anita Rice