SRA targets document storage in aim to save millions
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has launched costs saving proposals to help it cope with a predicted rise in interventions.
The SRA has six million documents in storage, taken from firms which have required intervention. However, only 33,000 of these files have ever been asked for by clients and less than half of those were for original documents. It is now consulting on proposals to cut storage costs by a potential £2.5m by relaxing the rule that it needs to keep files for seven years following an intervention.
Helen Herniman, SRA director of client protection, says: “The predicted number of interventions we may have to carry out has risen dramatically and the associated costs, especially where firms have failed to adhere to or implement effective file destruction policies, have increased significantly.
“Intervention costs have, therefore, been driven by the need to secure and manage a disproportionately large number of closed files. The profession ultimately bears these costs, so we promised in March that we would look at ways of reducing the costs of interventions where possible.”
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