The Solicitors Regulation Authority is to examine whether it should stop setting a minimum salary level for trainees as part of its overhaul of regulation, in a review that will begin this autumn.

The regulator is also considering whether to freeze the current minimum salary level this year, with a decision expected shortly.

The minimum salary for trainees is £16,650, or £18,590 in London. This normally increases in line with inflation based on the previous calendar year’s retail price index.

An SRA spokesman said its education and training committee was considering whether to freeze the minimum salary level for 2010/2011 in view of the financial problems being experienced by firms, and would soon publish its decision.

He said the SRA would also be reviewing whether it should abolish the minimum salary altogether, as part of the regulator’s move to outcomes-focused regulation, which will include all aspects of education and training. It will begin to consider the issue this autumn, in consultation with the profession.