SRA cannot override client’s legal professional privilege when investigating alleged professional misconduct

21/09/26

In an important decision handed down today, the High Court (Butcher J) has held that s.44B of the Solicitors Act 1974 (the 1974 Act) does not permit the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to obtain material which is subject to legal professional privilege (LPP) enjoyed by the solicitor’s client where that client has not waived privilege. The statutory provision contains no express words overriding LPP, and, on the proper construction of the enactment, there is no necessary implication to that effect either.

In so holding, the Judge rejected the SRA’s arguments that he was bound by the decisions of the Court of Appeal in Parry-Jones v Law Society [1969] 1 Ch. 1 and the Divisional Court in Simms v Law Society [2005] EWHC 408 (Admin) to reach the contrary conclusion. The Judge also rejected the SRA’s case that the provision by a solicitor of its client’s privileged material to the SRA for the purpose of the SRA’s functions involved no infringement, or alternatively a permissible technical infringement of the client’s LPP at common law.

The decision of the High Court in Carter-Ruck Solicitors and another -v- SRA [2026] EWHC 2416 (KB) can be read here.