Whilst still not being able to inform the profession as to the final date for nominating their Compliance Officers for Legal Practice (COLPs) and Compliance Offices for Finance and Administration (COFAs), the SRA has announced that it will be extending the deadline “in order to give firms more time to finalise their nominations to the SRA, and to allow for further checks on the application process”. The fact that the online nomination form could still be six weeks away may also be a factor!

However, it would appear that it remains the SRA‘s intention to make approval decisions on all nominations by the original date of 31 October – the date upon which COLPs and COFAs are supposed to start fulfilling their duties.

In the meantime, and perhaps somewhat belatedly given that many firms will already have made their decisions, the SRA has issued what it is referring to as advice as to what it will be looking for in nominations. This can be found at www.sra.org.uk/sra/news/press/colps-cofas-nominations-advice.page