Eighty jobs to go in reform

The organisation also revealed it could be leaving its offices in Tachbrook Park to combine with its Redditch arm at a new location within the Midlands.

Chief executive Antony Townsend said there were currently some 640 full-time equivalent posts at the two locations. These are expected to be reduced to 560 by the end of the year.

Staff were told of the proposals on Monday.

Mr Townsend added: “The new structure is designed around three key regulatory activities: authorisation, supervision and enforcement. The senior team for this structure is already in place and the remainder will be filled in phases during the spring and summer”

He said: “This is the final stage of our programme to equip the SRA to be a modern, risk-based regulator, capable of meeting the needs of consumers of legal services in a radically changing legal sector.”

Mr Townsend said the present “inefficient” IT systems would be replaced and the reorganised SRA staffed by a combination of existing workers, who will be retrained, plus some targeted new appointments.

He admitted: “There will be some redundancies where we cannot re-deploy existing staff. I am grateful to all my colleagues for their professional approach during what is inevitably a difficult period.”

No decision has yet been made on a new location.