LSB approves lower SDT budget with fewer sitting days and reduced cost to solicitors
The cost of funding the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal will fall next year after the Legal Services Board approved a reduced budget for 2026. The total budget has been set at just over £3m, representing a cut of 2.5 per cent from the current year. The reduction equates to £17.65 on the practising certificate fee payable by each solicitor.
In its decision, the Legal Services Board said the budget was based on an assumption that the tribunal would sit for only 230 days in 2026. This represents a fall of 70 days from the estimated total for 2025. The regulator noted, however, that the tribunal has faced difficulties in predicting sitting days accurately in recent years. Figures presented to the board showed that the tribunal recorded 260 sitting days in 2024 and 270 in 2023.
The reduction in sitting days means that the projected cost per court day will rise. The Legal Services Board reported that the estimated cost per sitting day in 2026 would be about £13,300, compared with almost £10,500 this year. The tribunal expects to receive around 140 referrals in 2026 from all sources, most of which will come from the Solicitors Regulation Authority, although members of the public may also bring prosecutions.
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In its budget application, the tribunal said the Solicitors Regulation Authority anticipated approximately 120 referrals next year. The authority attributed this projection to an increase in misconduct reports, a rise in historical cases progressing to the tribunal, and additional staffing within its legal department intended to speed up the progression of cases. The Solicitors Regulation Authority also said it expected more complex cases, a greater reliance on live evidence and more disputes between the parties.
The Legal Services Board acknowledged that the tribunal had carried out significant analysis of past referrals from the Solicitors Regulation Authority in order to improve forecasting. The tribunal took into account that around 44 per cent of cases result in agreed outcomes, which require tribunal approval but considerably less hearing time.
The board observed that the tribunal has overestimated the number of sitting days needed in recent years and is attempting to adjust its planning for 2026. It also noted that the tribunal relies heavily on projections provided by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which has tended to predict higher referral numbers than ultimately occur. As an example, the authority estimated 196 referrals for 2024 but made only 153. As of 31 August this year, it had made 68 of the 120 predicted referrals for 2025.
The tribunal also reported that around 60 per cent of cases have either resulted in late agreed outcomes or been adjourned for health reasons. Although Solicitors Regulation Authority guidance requires agreed outcomes to be submitted 28 days before a hearing, the authority has often failed to meet this deadline. The tribunal said hearing days were lost as a result, and the authority has faced criticism for these delays.
The tribunal told the oversight regulator that greater coordination with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, combined with its internal case management practice of listing substantial hearings only after 14 weeks, should help reduce the attrition rate. The Legal Services Board accepted this reasoning and approved the budget.
The board also noted that the tribunal intends to use increased funding for strategic investments to improve efficiency. These include integrating AI to support judgement production, updating sanctions guidance to improve transparency, and expanding graduate outreach and member recruitment to strengthen equality, diversity and inclusion within the tribunal’s work.