Compliance and regulatory · COLP, risk partner, compliance lead, general counsel
Drafting a response to the SRA or the FCA
An SRA letter asks eight numbered questions on supervision and AI use, with a firm deadline. The Regulator Response preset answers exactly what is asked, in the order asked, with a chronology and candid acknowledgement where the file has a gap.
- Agents
- First draft
- Two grounded research answers in under a minute each, then a first draft the COLP can work on the same day.
- Steps
- 6
The problem
Step 01 of 06
Open the matter
The SRA letter, the firm's file notes, the client care letter under scrutiny, the complaints log entry and the firm's AI use policy are added.
Step 02 of 06
Check what is engaged
Which parts of the SRA Standards and Regulations apply, and what the SRA has published on technology and COLP responsibility, come back with named publications and case references.
Step 03 of 06
Establish the chronology
A dated chronology is built from the firm's own file notes, flagging a gap in the record rather than leaving it for the regulator to notice.
Step 04 of 06
Draft the response
The Compliance & Regulatory Agent runs with Prepare for: Regulator Response, answering each numbered question under its own heading, with the chronology and a candid note on the file gap.
Step 05 of 06
Attach the register as an annex
A printable audit bundle for the relevant period covers runs, verification results, sharing, documents, members and conflict checks.
Step 06 of 06
Sign off
The COLP works through the draft as a first draft, not a submission, and the managing partner signs off before it is downloaded.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- A numbered draft answering each question in the order the regulator asked it.
- A dated chronology built from the firm's own file notes, with any gap acknowledged and the remediation dated.
- References to the specific SRA Code provisions and named SRA publications engaged.
- A printable audit bundle with a content digest, attachable as an annex.
Authorities it checks
- SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors, RELs and RFLs
- SRA Code of Conduct for Firms
- SRA Risk Outlook report on the use of artificial intelligence in the legal market (November 2023)
- SRA thematic review of compliance officers (December 2025)
- SRA guidance update on new technology and COLP responsibility (February 2026)
- Ayinde v London Borough of Haringey; Al-Haroun v Qatar National Bank (Divisional Court, June 2025)
What it does not do
- It does not submit the response. The draft is worked by the COLP and signed off by the managing partner before anything is sent.
- It does not soften the acknowledgement of a file-note gap; the instruction is to state it and set out the remediation with dates.
- The bundle carries a content digest, not a compliance certificate and not a tamper-evident hash chain.