Hundreds of charities and social enterprises across the UK are set to receive a share of tied up and forgotten accounts worth millions. There is £800m worth of dormant assets and the government has recently announced how £76m of these assets will be distributed. The...
A recent study from the Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index found that the average digital maturity of law firms in England and Wales was 43%. Furthermore only 5% of law firms scored higher than 80%. This will perhaps come as a shock too many considering the pandemic...
The SRA has increased their fining power Last year the SRA increased its fining powers from £2,000 to £25,000 to enable them to impose larger fines on legal firms that fail to implement adequate Anti Money Laundering training and systems. Before this change any fines...
Charity employees and trustees often assume that they receive an automatic VAT exemption on all goods and services that they buy/receive. This is not the case and charities should understand the few concessions in the VAT legislation that can reduce their VAT bills....
A recent survey conducted by HSBC between May – July 2022 has found that 50% of respondents plan to reduce their office space within the next three years. It is important to note that this survey was conducted before the latest economic issues developed. This is an...
What is the indemnity fund? The Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF) was established in 1987 to provide compulsory professional indemnity cover to all solicitor firms in private practice in England and Wales. With the agreement of The Law Society of England and Wales, the...
Recent statistics have revealed that the legal sector has defied predictions of a slowdown. Data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed that turnover for the legal sector for July was £3.7bn, an 8.3% increase from July 2021 (£3.4bn) and a 2.2% increase...
Recent sector research has found that the biggest challenge facing in-house legal teams is managing risk whilst prioritising large volumes of work. It is important to note that this was a global survey formed of 169 legal, risk and compliance professionals. Over 20%...
Towards the end of 2021 the SRA announced that they were proposing an increase in fining powers from £2,000 to £25,000. In addition, the regulator announced the development of a new fast track system for ‘fixed penalties’ for low-level offenses. It was recently...
The LSB (Legal Services Board) has developed a new website called reshapinglegalservices.org.uk. The new website aims to present research and insight about the future of legal services from lawyers, regulators, tech experts and consumers. The idea behind the website...
After a delay due to a technical issue the Charity Commission has now opened its online system for submitting annual returns. The system was originally scheduled to go live towards the end of April. But due to the delay it was not released until 5th of May. What is...
A revised version of the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) is set to be updated from 1 January 2024. This is less than two years away. The charities SORP was first introduced in 2015 and updated in 2019 to clarify and reflect amendments and changes to...