The obligations the SRA imposes on firms as regulated entities: the officers, systems and standards an authorised body must have in place to meet its responsibilities.
A firm is regulated in its own right, and its managers answer collectively for any failure to meet the required standards. This chapter starts with the Code's purpose and scope, where responsibility for compliance sits, and the roles of the COLP and COFA, before turning to the governance, record-keeping and supervision systems a firm must operate. It then works through the information owed to clients on costs, complaints and transparency, the limits on referral fees and fee sharing, and the systems needed to manage conflicts of interest and protect confidential information. The final sections cover client money, indemnity insurance and financial crime controls, the duty to report material breaches and cooperate with the SRA, and the rules on ceasing to act, client files, third parties, outsourcing and separate businesses.
