The Solicitors Regulation Authority may ask the Law Society Council to reconsider its decision to transfer voluntary accreditation schemes back to Chancery Lane.

The Law Society representative body expects to take control of voluntary programmes no later than June after council voted in favour of transferring them back from the SRA (see [2009] Gazette, 5 February, 3).

The regulatory body last week ‘reserved the right to ask the council to reconsider’ but has not made a decision yet.

The SRA has been in control of three mandatory and 11 voluntary schemes since 2007 but the Society maintains that voluntary programmes are not a regulatory matter.

At an SRA board meeting, members agreed to carry out a ‘rapid review’ of voluntary accreditation schemes, in consultation with the Legal Services Commission and Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner, to find out which have a regulatory function and which should be mandatory.

A public paper presented to the meeting was highly critical of the Society’s management of the issue. ‘The woeful process which has allowed the representative Law Society unilaterally to narrow the SRA’s regulatory functions, apparently ignoring the views of not only the SRA but also the reservations expressed by the Legal Services Commission, the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner and the Legal Services Board, is symptomatic of the current governance difficulties in the Law Society Group.’

The paper says the board hopes the LSB will be able to ‘cure this problem’ and that a ‘practical solution, which can protect the public interest without further unnecessarily exacerbating the differences between the Law Society and the SRA’ is needed.

Law Society chief executive Des Hudson said: ‘The council took the decision on this after prolonged consultation with the SRA and we look forward to the implementation so that the Law Society can start work to reinvigorate the schemes and increase their value to solicitors.

‘Our position is very clear – we recognise the right of SRA to set standards and deal with compulsory accreditation schemes, including the need to deliver accreditation schemes where the market will not. Voluntary schemes are not matters that usually require the regulator’s involvement.’