The Solicitors Regulation Authority will begin accepting licence applications for alternative business structures from 3 January, it has announced.

The order designating the SRA as licensing authority was laid before parliament today and will come into force on 23 December.

The authority will therefore start accepting applications on the first working day after the new year. It expects the first successful applicants to be announced in the second half of February.

Chief executive Antony Townsend said: ‘We welcome the news that we will become an ABS licensing authority from 23 December. This is a milestone that we have been working towards for nearly two years.

‘It means the public can have confidence that ABSs providing reserved legal activities will be regulated according to the same rigorous professional standards as traditional law firms.’

The SRA will become the second ABS licensing authority, after the Council for Licensed Conveyancers was granted the status on 6 October.