The value of outstanding claims to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s compensation fund has jumped by 27% in a year.

Figures released by the SRA show the value of claims in progress was £214m at the end of October, compared with around £170m 12 months previously.

Over the same period the SRA reduced the number of claims opened against a solicitor or firm by 37% to 1,732.

Mortgage fraud and misappropriated mortgage advance accounted for £173m of the value of current claims, a rise of £70m in a year. Claims by those who say they were owed money in this sector shot up from 323 to 770.

The next highest number of outstanding claims, 461, relate to complaints about gross overcharging.

The SRA said the increase was due to a backlog of claims from two or three years ago being processed and showing up in the fund figures.

A spokesman said: ‘The increase in the size of the claims outstanding can be linked to the associated rise in mortgage fraud cases. The size of the claims should therefore go down over the coming years as the reduction in mortgage fraud claims takes effect.’

The reduction in the number of outstanding cases is the fruit of work by a team set up to deal with the 2,300 cases generated by intervention into Cheshire firm Wolstenholmes at the end of 2009.

During the last year the SRA has closed claims worth £87m and paid out £22m in compensation.