Tuesday 15 May 2012 by John Hyde

The Solicitors Regulation Authority is set to push back the date for approving compliance officers by two months.

The SRA Board will vote tomorrow on extending the grace period for approving the new appointments to 31 December. As recently as last weekend, SRA chief executive Antony Townsend told the Sole Practitioners' Group that the original October deadline would be met.

The move follows an earlier decision to grant firms more time to nominate compliance officers for legal practice and for finance and administration (COLPs and COFAs). The SRA has allowed firms until 31 July to put forward nominations after the delays to the online practising certificate system created a backlog of regulation.

All firms must appoint compliance officers who are responsible for recording and reporting any failure to comply with SRA regulations.

They are a key element of the new authorisation rules set out last year as part of the SRA Handbook.