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SRA, AML and transparency
SRA transparency rules: which services need published prices, what the page must say, and the two things firms leave off
The SRA Transparency Rules as a website audit: the nine listed services, the seven price items, complaints information, the digital badge, and the usual gaps.
"SRA price transparency rules", "SRA transparency rules 2018", "SRA transparency rules guidance": the searches still carry the year the rules first came in, and the current edition dates from 11 April 2025. This is the audit a partner can run against the firm's own website in an hour.
Which services
For individuals: residential conveyancing (freehold and leasehold sales and purchases, mortgages and remortgages); probate for uncontested estates where all assets are in the UK; immigration applications and tribunal appeals, excluding asylum; representation at the magistrates' court for summary road traffic offences; and employment tribunal claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal.
For businesses: defending employment tribunal claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal; debt recovery up to £100,000; and applications for business premises licences.
If the firm offers any of these, the website must carry price information for it. If the firm has no website, the information must be available on request. A firm that does the work but does not publish is in breach from the first client.
What the page must say, item by item
Rule 1.5 lists seven items, in this order.
AI staff and workflows for high-street solicitors. Starting with conveyancing client updates.See what we would set up- The total cost, or where that is not practicable, the average cost or a range. "From £950" on its own is not a total or a range.
- The basis of the charges, including any hourly rates or fixed fees.
- Who does the work: the experience and qualifications of the people who will carry it out and of their supervisors.
- Disbursements: a description and the cost of each one that is likely, or the average or a range where the actual cost is not known.
- VAT: whether any fees or disbursements attract it and, if so, the amount.
- What is included in the price, with the key stages of the matter and the likely timescale for each, and any service a client might reasonably expect to be included that is not.
- Conditional fee and damages-based agreements: if the firm uses them, the circumstances in which a client may have to pay for the service themselves, including out of any damages.
The seventh applies only to a firm that uses those agreements, which is why it is easy to leave off a list. A firm that offers "no win, no fee" on employment claims and says nothing about when the client pays is short of the rule.
The complaints information
Separately from price, every regulated firm's website must carry details of its complaints handling procedure, including how and when a complaint can be made to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA. This applies whether or not the firm offers a listed service.
The badge
Authorised firms must display the SRA's digital badge, the clickable logo that confirms regulation, on the website, and their SRA number. The badge is issued by the SRA and has to be installed; a copied image of the logo is not the badge.
The two items most often missing
Reading the rules against the pattern of small-firm sites, two items go missing more than the rest. Item 7, the experience of the people doing the work and their supervisors: firms publish prices and forget to say who. The badge: firms add the words "regulated by the SRA" and never install the clickable version. Neither takes long to fix, and both are visible to the SRA from its desk.
Where it meets the client care letter
The published page is the promise; the client care letter is where the promise is made to one client, with the figures for their matter. The file-opening checklist checks that the letter carries the costs information the Code requires (8.6 and 8.7) and matches the page. A client who finds the letter's figure higher than the website's range has a complaint before the matter starts, and the Legal Ombudsman's conveyancing complaint numbers suggest they make it; the update template is built against the same data.
AI staff and workflows for high-street solicitors. Starting with conveyancing client updates.See what we would set upIn the firm
An AI File Opener set up by Overlyft compares the client care letter's figures with the published page on every new matter and flags a mismatch to the COLP, and runs the seven-item audit of the price pages each quarter. The COLP owns the pages and signs off any change; the pages are the firm's statements and the firm is accountable for them. This is general information from the published rules, not legal advice.
Short answers from this page
What price information must a law firm publish on its website?
For the services the SRA Transparency Rules name (six for individuals, including residential conveyancing and probate, and three for businesses), the seven items of rule 1.5: total cost or a range; the basis of charging; the experience and qualifications of who does the work; disbursements; VAT; what is included, with key stages and likely timescales; and, if conditional fee or damages-based agreements are used, when the client may have to pay. Complaints information and the SRA digital badge are also required.
Source: SRA Transparency Rules
Where this comes from: SRA Transparency Rules, edition in force from 11 April 2025, read on sra.org.uk 2026-10-01; the "most often missing" observation is ours from reading the rules against the pattern of sites, not an SRA statistic.
AEO Lookup editorial team
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