The vast majority of solicitors who responded to a Law Society survey on the practising certificate (PC) fee said they thought it did not represent value for money.

A further two-thirds thought the way the money was split between the society, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and other bodies was “not reasonable”, with many arguing that the society should get more and the SRA less.

The society carried out the online poll before it approved a fee for 2015/16 of £320 for each solicitor, the same as last year. The fee was approved by the Legal Services Board (LSB) earlier this month, albeit that the oversight regulator had concern about the fee staying the same while SRA spending fell.

A total of 84% of the 187 solicitors who took part said they thought the fee did not “represent value for money in terms of the benefits received”.

Specific comments made by solicitors included that the society was “not protecting the brand of ‘solicitor’ and ultimately that is key”, as well as criticisms of salaries paid to Law Society staff, and the cost of specific projects, such as Veyo or Black Solicitors Week.

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Practising certificate renewal will run from 1st to 31st October this year, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has confirmed.

The month-long exercise will bring together key information on solicitors and firms, and the collection of periodic fees.

The Legal Services Board (LSB) has agreed practising fees will be unchanged for the coming practising year.

Proposals by the SRA have been accepted, meaning the individual fee will remain at £320. Fees for firms are determined by turnover figures. Compensation Fund contributions also remain unchanged at £548 for firms, and £32 for individuals.

Practising fees are set at a level necessary to meet the total funding requirement set by the Law Society Council. The fees are used to fund the SRA, to pay statutory levies to the Legal Services Board, Legal Ombudsman and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, and to fund representation by the Law Society that meets the ‘permitted purposes' criteria in the Legal Services Act.

To make sure their renewal runs as smoothly as possible, solicitors and firms with a mySRA account need to ensure their information in the account is up to date before 1st October. Any changes to organisation details, such as name, address or the addition of a new office, should be made in mySRA by 1st September 2015 for approval in good time for the October renewals window.

Firms' authorised signatories and organisation contacts have been advised of the new renewal window dates.

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