Sole practitioners have condemned as ‘outrageous’ and ‘totally intrusive’ plans by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to require commercially sensitive information to carry out risk assessments.

SRA head of policy Bronwen Still told the annual general meeting of the Sole Practitioners Group (SPG) that firms must soon provide information for risk-based regulation. The information would include evidence of financial stability and details of fee levels.

Janis Purdy, an SPG executive committee member and principal of Bristol firm Janis Purdy, said: ‘The SRA should stick to its job of regulating and leave risk assessment to the insurance companies. This information gathering is totally intrusive.’

A spokeswoman for the SRA said: ‘We will be asking sole practitioners to supply the same information as other firms to enable us to assess risk more accurately and regulate fairly.’