Legal background Legal services – SRA information request powers
Under section 44B of the Solicitors Act 1974, the SRA, as delegated from the Law Society, has the power to require information or documents, as specified in a notice, to be provided. This power allows the SRA to request information from solicitors and their employees, and recognised bodies, their employees and managers, and persons with an interest in the body only where it is necessary to do so for the purposes of an investigation into (for example) suspected misconduct by a solicitor or a failure to comply with a relevant requirement. The SRA can seek to require a third person, for example a person who the SRA does not regulate or who is not an employee of a recognised body, to provide information or deliver documents under section 44BB.
	In its role as a licensing authority, the SRA may require a person to provide information or to produce documents to ascertain whether the terms of a licensed body’s licence are being complied with, under section 93 of the Legal Services Act 2007. This power may be exercised against a licensed body, any manager or employee of the licensed body or any non-authorised person who has an interest in the licensed body.
	The SRA, as delegated from the Law Society, also has the power to request information and documents from individuals or firms it supervises in its role as a "Professional Body Supervisor" under regulation 66 of the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. This allows the SRA to issue a notice in writing to require a person to whom the regulations apply or applied, to provide information or documents of a specific description or to attend before an officer of the supervisory authority to answer questions in connection with the exercise of supervisory functions. The power also extends to requesting documents from third parties, where the supervisor has the power under the regulations to require a person to produce a document.
	The MLRs enable the SRA to take a proactive approach to enforcement, enabling spot-checking of firms without the need for an active investigation to be in progress. This enables the SRA to assess both levels of exposure to risk in the regulated population and levels of compliance. However, approximately 3,200 firms are not covered by the MLRs, meaning that the SRA cannot effectively practice proactive checks, and therefore risk-based regulation, across the whole of its regulated community.