The Complaints Black Hole

Published May 2026. A Blind Justice UK research briefing, with an open letter to the Chief Executive of the SRA.

In 2023/24 the SRA received 11,852 reports about solicitors and closed 8,317 before any investigation began. Only 1,763 were referred for investigation and around 510 led to a regulatory finding. Since 2017/18 the proportion of reports referred has fallen from around 53 per cent to around 15 per cent while the volume of reports has barely changed. The SRA does not publish closure reasons, subject-matter breakdowns or whether firms later intervened in had earlier reports closed unexamined. 

The briefing calls for an independent retrospective audit of assessment-stage closures, published closure data, and an independent review route for complainants. The SRA's response is published alongside it.