The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced that the Legal Services Board has approved proposals to remove unnecessary burdens on law firms carrying out reserved activities.

Under the previous rules the SRA could revoke or suspend a firm’s authorisation if it did not carry out the reserved activities it was authorised to do. As part of its agenda of reducing the regulatory burden on firms and promoting flexibility and innovation in the legal market, the SRA now wish to abolish this rule.

This proposal was part of a package of reforms set out in April last year, and consulted upon in the summer. The relevant rule changes were agreed by the Board of the SRA in September, and the LSB approved all measures in the package except this, which it wanted to consider further.

The LSB has now approved the change. This means that once a firm has shown it meets the standards to be entitled to carry out reserved activities, it will not need to demonstrate that it is actively doing so.