The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have published this year’s initial fees calculator to give firms an idea of their costs for practising in 2016/17.

Practising fees are set at a level necessary to meet the total funding requirement set by the Law Society Council. The fees are used to fund our activities, to pay statutory levies to the Legal Services Board, Legal Ombudsman and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, and to fund representation by the Law Society that meets the ‘permitted purposes’ criteria in the Legal Services Act.

The SRA have proposed to keep down their net funding requirement – falling from £54.1m in 2015/16 to £53.5m in 2016/17 and as a result the proposed individual fee is to come down by £30 to £290.

The SRA Board agreed the draft budget requirements at its meeting on 1 June. Fee determinations will be agreed on 13 July and the full Law Society Group funding requirement on 14 July, and then put forward to the Legal Services Board for final approval.

The SRA have also been working with the Law Society to launch a consultation on fee levels.

The calculator and other information on fee determinations can be accessed here whilst the joint SRA / Law Society consultation on fee levels can be accessed here.