The statement of solicitor competence, the SRA's account of what every solicitor must be able to do, is set to name AI for the first time. The regulator opened a consultation on 8 October 2026 into the statement, which it first published in 2015, and the consultation runs until 3 December.
The statement matters well beyond the SQE. Aspiring solicitors are assessed against it, and qualified solicitors use it to reflect on their continuing competence, the exercise behind the declaration you make each year when your practising certificate is renewed. The SRA says it is not changing any rules, so the draft creates no new obligation. What it changes is the standard you measure yourself against when you review your own competence.
Where AI appears in the draft
The SRA considered a standalone technology competence and decided against it, preferring to write AI into the existing competences where it bears most on the work. Four changes carry the weight. The duty to keep up your competence would take account of developments in the law and in technology including AI. Legal research would mean using methods and resources appropriately and responsibly. The results of that research, including the outputs from technology including AI, would have to be checked by reference to primary resources. Drafting a document from start to finish would include appropriate use of precedents and of technology, including AI.
The SRA links the research and drafting changes to concerns about AI hallucinations in legal work and in submissions to the court. The phrase about primary resources is the one to hold on to. A summary from a research tool is not the check. The law report or the statute is, and the draft says so in terms that a firm can write straight into its procedures.
A new section on supervision
The larger change is a new section headed supervise others effectively. The SRA gives the Court of Appeal's judgment in Mazur and the problems in high volume consumer claims as its reasons, and stakeholders told it the existing competences for supervisors said too little about oversight of technology and AI. The draft asks a supervisor to delegate clearly, to be clear on the direction, supervision and control of tasks, and to have clear oversight of the work being done, including the use of technology and AI. It also adds leading by example on ethics and responding to concerns about the wellbeing of the people you supervise.
In a small firm the gap tends to sit in that oversight line. A partner who signs off a letter knows who drafted it, yet may not know whether a tool wrote the first version, which tool it was, or what client material went into it. The draft treats that knowledge as part of supervising well.
What to do before the consultation closes
Final versions are due in April 2027 and the changes would take effect in September 2027, but nothing stops you working to the draft now. Read Annex 1, which marks every proposed change, and use it in this year's reflection on your competence, so the record you keep shows you considered AI in research, drafting and supervision. Write the primary sources check into your research procedure if it is not there already. Then ask each supervisor in the firm to list the people they oversee and the AI tools those people use, and to say how they would know when a tool produced the first draft.
If the draft misses something your firm sees in practice, respond to it. The questionnaire is online, and its first question asks directly about the technology and AI amendments.
The SRA’s consultation, Review of the Statement of Solicitor Competence and the SQE Functioning Legal Knowledge, is open to any reader on sra.org.uk, with the marked-up statement and the reason for each change as free PDF annexes. Responses close at 23.59 on 3 December 2026.
If you want your supervision of AI written down before the new standard arrives, start with a conversation.
