The total cost of sitting the Solicitors Qualifying Examination will exceed £5,000 from September, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has revealed – as it emerged that 2026 will be a bumper year for candidate numbers.
Candidates currently pay £1,934 to sit SQE1 and £2,974 to sit SQE2. From October, they will have to pay £2,006 for SQE1 and £3,086 for SQE2. The SRA said the fees are being increased to reflect inflation.
The latest increase also includes a ‘small annual additional uplift’ towards the cost of translating the assessments into Welsh – even though no candidate has yet to sit the exam in Welsh. The SQE’s independent assessor, Ricardo Le, said a key reason why no one has sat the exam in Welsh is because no training provider currently offers full SQE preparation in Welsh.
The SRA confirmed the fee increase after publishing reports on the fourth full year of SQE.
Le said the complex and multi-faceted nature of the exams made them challenging to deliver ‘but results in an assessment that is robust and defensible, providing value to its outcomes’. In 2025, the delivery of SQE was ‘good and demonstrated improvement based on past annual reports’. Le also revealed that 2026 will see the largest number of candidates sitting SQE2.
SRA chief executive Sarah Rapson said: ‘'These reports should reassure employers and candidates that the SQE is a robust and rigorous assessment. Setting a high bar at the point of qualification is key to our mission to drive public trust in legal services. The Independent Reviewer, Ricardo Le, notes the steps that have been taken to improve the experience of candidates. The impact of these measures is demonstrated by improvements in candidate feedback, shown in the quality assurance report.
‘Yet there is more to do. While it is often the case that new assessments take time to gain acceptance, confidence in the SQE is not as high as we would like it to be. We are engaging more closely with the profession and candidates, and carrying out extensive evaluation. We are committed to making further changes to improve the SQE and to continue to build confidence in it.’
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