Continuing Competence – Ready to sign your declaration for your practising certificate?

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Continuing Competence – Ready to sign your declaration for your practising certificate?

The SRA have just announced that the practising certificate renewal window will open on Thursday 1 October!  The declaration will ask if you have reflected on and addressed any identified learning and development needs. Can you confidently sign the declaration?

Continuing competence applies to all solicitors who have a practising certificate, including those that work in the UK and overseas.

The SRA published its latest Annual Assessment of Continuing Competence on 20 August 2026. The assessment provides an updated picture of how effectively solicitors are maintaining their competence and highlights areas in which further improvement may be required.

The SRA have just closed their consultation on strengthening continuing competence requirements, as concerns remain about whether all solicitors are reflecting properly on their practice and addressing their learning and development needs.

It is now not enough to simply list the courses you have attended and when. There needs to be a record of how and why the learning and development was required and whether the activity has addressed the original need.

So, what do your continuing competence records look like? Are you reflecting on your learning and development needs? Are you undertaking the correct training for your requirements

This live and interactive one hour session will cover the following:

• What is meant by ‘continuing competence’ – a recap of the old and new system
• An overview of the findings and implications of the SRA’s Annual Assessment of Continuing Competence 2026
• The Competence Statement:
  • A statement of solicitor competence
  • The threshold statement
  • A statement of legal knowledge
• What the SRA expects you to do:
  • Reflect
  • Plan
  • Complete
  • Evaluate
  • Record
• Using the flexibility of the continuing competence regime and its wider range of permitted learning activities
• Record keeping – what records are required to demonstrate competence including templates
• Reporting to the SRA on your annual declaration
• Preparing for greater regulatory scrutiny, including possible spot checks, audits and file reviews
• The future of continuing competence – the SRA’s consultation and what may happen next

To attend, please email Alice.wylie@sussex-law.co.uk