SRA appoints Deborah Jones as executive director for transformation to drive operational reform
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has strengthened its executive leadership with the appointment of Deborah Jones as Executive Director for Transformation, as part of a broader effort to improve operational delivery across the regulator.
The appointment, announced on 26 January 2026, places Jones in a newly created senior executive role reporting directly to SRA chief executive Sarah Rapson. The position is designed to provide executive leadership across several of the organisation’s most significant transformation and improvement programmes.
Jones joins the SRA on a secondment basis from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). She is currently deputy managing director at the Payment Systems Regulator, an independent subsidiary of the FCA, where she has been involved in regulatory oversight and organisational change.
According to the SRA, the new role forms part of a wider programme to strengthen operational effectiveness and ensure the regulator is better equipped to protect the public and uphold professional standards. Jones will lead initiatives aimed at enhancing how the organisation identifies and responds to risk, improving quality and consistency across its work, and delivering change across core regulatory functions.
Her responsibilities will also include bringing together executive accountability for a number of specialist areas, including quality assurance, adjudication and corporate complaints. The SRA said this approach is intended to support a more joined-up and efficient regulatory framework.
Sarah Rapson, who became chief executive of the SRA in November, said strengthening operational delivery was one of her stated priorities on taking up the role. She said the appointment reflected feedback received from stakeholders and staff during her first months in post.
“One of the priorities that I outlined when I became chief executive of the SRA in November was the need to strengthen and improve our operational delivery,” Rapson said.
She added that Jones’s background in regulatory transformation and competition law would be a significant asset as the organisation seeks to improve how it operates. Rapson said the appointment would support the SRA’s focus on protecting the public and driving high standards across the legal profession.
Rapson also highlighted the importance of collaboration between regulators, saying it was vital for the SRA to work closely with its counterparts to achieve outcomes in the public interest. She said the new executive director role would play a key part in that objective.
Reflecting on her early engagement with the sector, Rapson said discussions with legal stakeholders and SRA colleagues had consistently underlined the need for a strong and focused executive team capable of delivering change. She said she was looking forward to welcoming Jones to the organisation.
Jones brings extensive experience in regulatory change and transformation. Before her current role at the Payment Systems Regulator, she held senior positions at the Financial Conduct Authority. Earlier in her career, she worked at the Office of Fair Trading.
She qualified as a solicitor in 2000 and began her legal career practising competition law at Slaughter and May.
The SRA said Jones’s appointment would support its ongoing efforts to modernise regulatory operations and improve consistency across decision-making functions, as well as strengthen oversight and accountability at executive level.