Solicitors Regulation Authority executives insisted today that they have not been asked by the home secretary to fast-track prosecutions against immigration solicitors named in the Daily Mail sting.

A delegation from the solicitors' regulator met with home secretary Suella Braverman and justice secretary Alex Chalk on Tuesday as part of the government’s official launch of its taskforce into wrongdoing in the sector.

Speaking to the media today, SRA chief executive Paul Philip said the details of the meeting were confidential - but he stated that no pressure was put on the regulator to speed up the disciplinary process involving the solicitors and law firms shut down following their alleged dealings with an undercover Mail reporter. The process by which any firm or individual is brought before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal will be the same as for any others, Philip said. 

The conversion with ministers was ‘professional and robust’, Philip said, noting that the government had initiated the meeting. ‘We were invited to a meeting with two major ministers of state,’ said Philip. ‘Why would we not at least go and hear what they have to say? It would have been wholly unreasonable not to go.’

Asked whether the SRA was conscious of maintaining the independence of the organisation, chair Anna Bradley said this was at the forefront of its thoughts. ‘We need to retain a relationship but we are aware of the need to retain our independence constantly,’ she said. ‘It is a delicate line which we have to tread.’

Philip denied the thematic review of the immigration sector carried out last year had failed to detect wrongdoing, saying it was not intended to be a wholescale inspection.

‘It is not a complete surprise to me [the review] did not find what the Mail found,’ he said. ‘It is not often you get the types of evidence the Mail managed to uncover. Given we have that video evidence we felt it was right to act decisively. The reality is you don’t often get that type of evidence.’

Philip and Bradley made no apology for using the aftermath of the Mail sting to raise the issue of granting the SRA unlimited fining powers. The regulator insists that this extra power would act as a greater deterrent, particularly if firms and other partners can be fined for the actions of a colleague.

Philip added: ‘We agree with the [Law] Society that with issues like strike-offs it should go to the SDT. But that takes time and [to create] a deterrent it has to be as close as possible to the wrongdoing.

‘It is likely to turn up at the SDT in a year’s time. If the SRA is threatening to fine the firm and the partners in the firm that is going to make a difference.

 

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