As reported on in the July Gazette, the ROPC is one of the Law Society’s standing committees and has a crucial role in ensuring professional standards are maintained, as well as supporting the profession to ensure that they comply with their regulatory obligations. 

A key role the committee carries out is to oversee compliance by solicitors with AML obligations as part of the Law Society’s competent authority functions. Section 60(1) of the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 (as amended) requires a competent authority to “monitor the designated persons for whom it is a competent authority and take measures that are reasonably necessary for the purpose of ensuring compliance by those designated persons”.

As the Regulation Department builds out the newly created AML unit as part of its current strategy, it is examining its current AML/CFT guidance to develop more practical educational delivery channels to enable solicitors to comply.

Solicitors are reminded of their obligations under current anti-money-laundering legislation: the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 (as amended) and the Solicitors (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Regulations 2020. 

Law Society inspections are conducted to ensure compliance with these acts and regulations, as well as the Solicitors Acts 1954-2015, the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015, and the Solicitors Accounts Regulations 2023.

As part of the Society’s competent authority monitoring process, solicitors are required to demonstrate that they have policies and procedures in place for the prevention and detection of money-laundering and terrorist-financing offences and that they are applying those procedures.

The ROPC has delegated power to deal with AML/CFT compliance by solicitors. Solicitors are reminded that failure to comply with the legislation may result in the committee taking one or more of the following courses of action:

• Requiring you to attend a meeting of the Regulation of Practice Committee to explain failure to comply,
• Requiring you to take remedial action, including a direction to undertake an external independent audit pursuant to regulation 5(10)(c),
• Specify a measure provided for in section 71 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015, including (but not limited to) directing participation in a professional competence scheme,
• Imposition of a levy pursuant to regulation 4(6)(d),
• Referral to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.