SRA Transparency Rules Website Compliance: 2026 Checklist for UK Law Firms

The SRA Transparency Rules came into force in December 2018 and were tightened in 2023. They apply to every SRA regulated firm with a website, whether you have one partner or one hundred.

There are four practical things the rules ask of your site.

• Price and service information for the specific work types the SRA lists (residential conveyancing, uncontested probate, motoring offences, employment tribunals for individuals, immigration, licensing applications for business premises, and debt recovery up to 100,000 pounds).
• A complaints procedure, including how to complain to the firm, then to the Legal Ombudsman, then to the SRA.
• Regulatory identity in the footer of every page (firm name, SRA number, registered office).
• The SRA clickable digital badge in the footer of every page.

For each SRA listed work type your site should show total costs, or a clear cost range with the assumptions that would make it higher or lower, plus VAT treatment, likely disbursements, key stages of the matter, typical timescales, and who will do the work with their qualification and experience.

The rules are strict on VAT. Say whether prices include or exclude VAT and give a worked example if you use a range.

• Fixed fee, hourly rate, or cost range plus assumptions.
• VAT treatment and whether disbursements attract VAT.
• Named team members with qualifications and years qualified.
• Key stages and typical timescales.
• Last reviewed date visible on the page.

The rules require an on site complaints procedure that names how a client complains to the firm, the time you take to acknowledge and respond, and what to do next if the client remains unhappy.

• Named complaints handler with contact details.
• Timescales for acknowledgement and full response.
• Legal Ombudsman contact details and time limits.
• SRA contact details for regulatory concerns.

Your firm identity belongs in the footer of every page, not on a single 'About us' page. Include firm name, SRA number, VAT number, registered office, and the SRA clickable digital badge.

On our care plan we treat the SRA Transparency Rules as a monthly checklist item. That means we confirm pricing pages exist for every relevant work type, the last reviewed date is within the last 12 months, the complaints page links to the Legal Ombudsman and SRA, and the SRA digital badge renders on every page.

If any of those fail, we open a ticket, fix, and log the change. That is the difference between a checklist that lives in a Google Doc and a checklist that runs against your live site every month.