Solicitors Act 1974

Supplementary E+W+N.I.

28 Regulations. E+W

(1) The Master of the Rolls may make regulations, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice, about the following matters, namely—

(a) admission as a solicitor;

(b) the keeping of the roll;

(c) practising certificates and applications for them;

(d) the keeping of the register under section 9.

(2) The power conferred by subsection (1) includes power to specify—

(a) one or more conditions (in this Act referred to as “training conditions”) to be imposed on the issue of practising certificates to solicitors to whom training regulations apply; and

(b) one or more conditions (in this Act referred to as “indemnity conditions”) to be imposed on the issue of practising certificates to solicitors who are exempt from indemnity rules.

(3) Regulations about the keeping of the roll and of the register under section 9 may provide for the manner in which entries are to be made, altered and removed.

[F1 (3A) Regulations about the keeping of the roll may—

(a) provide for the Society, at such intervals as may be specified in the regulations, to enquire of solicitors of any class so specified whether they wish to have their names retained on the roll;

(b) require solicitors of any such class, at such intervals as aforesaid, to pay to the Society a fee in respect of the retention of their names on the roll of such amount as may be prescribed by the regulations; and

(c) authorise the Society to remove from the roll the name of any solicitor who—

(i) fails to reply to any enquiry made in pursuance of paragraph (a) or to pay any fee payable by virtue of paragraph (b), or

(ii) replies to any such enquiry by indicating that he does not wish to have his name retained on the roll;

(d) authorise the Society to remove from the roll the name of any solicitor who has died.]

(4) [F2 Regulations about the keeping of the roll may also]provide for rights of appeal to the Master of the Rolls in connection with the making and alteration of entries on the roll and the removal of entries from it.

(5) The Master of the Rolls may make regulations about the procedure for any appeals to him authorised by this Part or regulations under this section.

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 28(3A) inserted by Administration of Justice Act 1985 (c. 61, SIF 34), s. 8, Sch. 1 para. 8(2)

F2 Words substituted by Administration of Justice Act 1985 (c. 61, SIF 34), s. 8, Sch. 1 para. 8(3)

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 S. 28(5) extended (22.5.2000) by S.I. 2000/1119. regs. 1, 37(3), Sch. 4 para. 1(2)

29 Non–British subjects as solicitors. 12 & 13 Will. 3. c. 2. E+W+N.I.

Nothing in section 3 of the Act of Settlement (which provides among other things that aliens are incapable of enjoying certain offices or places of trust) shall be taken to disqualify a person from becoming or practising as a solicitor of the Supreme Court or of the Supreme Court of Northern Ireland.

30 Evidence as to solicitors in Scotland. E+W

For the purposes of this Part, a letter purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the registrar of solicitors in Scotland—

(a) stating that a person specified in the letter is or is not a solicitor in Scotland shall be evidence that that person is or, as the case may be, is not a solicitor in Scotland;

(b) stating that a person specified in the letter did not at any time during a period so specified have in force a practising certificate as a solicitor in Scotland shall be evidence that that person was not during any part of that period a duly certificated solicitor in Scotland.