Disclosure of criminal offences to the police

The request was refused by Solicitors Regulation Authority.

Graham Senior-Milne

Dear Solicitors Regulation Authority,

In view of the 'SRA first principles of disclosure' (http://www.sra.org.uk/sra/how-we-work/di...), which state that disclosure decisions are 'discretionary and are made on a case by case basis by those with the delegated power to do so', does the SRA consider that it has a legal duty to report criminal offences to the police? If so, why is this duty not stated in the principles of disclosure?

Yours faithfully,

Graham Senior-Milne

Joao Curro,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Senior-Milne

 

Thank you for your email.

The Solicitors Act 1974 does not create a legal duty on the SRA to report
criminal offences to the police but does create a gateway to enable the
SRA to do so, as per the disclosure policy. Such referrals are facilitated
by a Memorandum of Understanding that the SRA has with the Association of
Chief Police Officers (ACPO).

I hope this information is of use.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Bob Stanley
Information Compliance Manager
The Law Society, 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL
t: 020 7242 1222 (x4117)
f: 020 7320 5685

[1]www.lawsociety.org.uk
[2]Corporate Solutions Logo -wide.jpg

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Graham Senior-Milne

Dear Joao Curro,

No, your reply doesn't help. Of course, it doesn't help because you did not intend it to help. You are being evasive and I expect your talents in this respect are the reason you are working for the SRA. You are effectively telling me is that your policy is that you have a discretion. This is no policy at all and, of course, was designed this way so that, in reality, the SRA has no real duties in this regard at all (at least, that can be measured against or enforced). Nice one. Oh, and thank you for not sending me a copy of the memorandum of understanding. Actually, I know exactly what the memorandum of understanding says. It says 'The SRA will tell members of the public to report matters to the police and the police will tell members of the public to report matters to the SRA. Successful complaints by members of the public will be taken as a sign of failure.'

Yours sincerely,

Graham Senior-Milne