SRA Transparency Rules: what your website must show

The SRA Transparency Rules say every SRA-regulated firm's website must show its SRA number and the SRA's clickable digital badge, and publish its complaints procedure, including how and when to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA. If you offer certain services, such as residential conveyancing or probate, you must also publish prices and service details.

This is a plain English guide, not legal or compliance advice: your compliance officer or the SRA has the final word on your firm. We build websites for law firms, so it's written from the website end, covering what goes on which page and how to keep it right. For what makes clients trust a solicitor's site more widely, see our trust signals article.

What are the SRA Transparency Rules?

Four short rules that set out what a regulated firm has to tell clients and potential clients before they buy. The SRA introduced them in 2018, partly in response to the Competition and Markets Authority's 2016 study of the legal market, which found that a lack of information on price, service and quality made it hard for people and small businesses to shop around. The version on the SRA's website has been in effect since 11 April 2025.

• Rule 1, costs information: prices and service details for a set list of services.
• Rule 2, complaints information: your complaints procedure, and how and when to go to the Legal Ombudsman or the SRA.
• Rule 3, publication: no website means the Rule 1 and 2 information is available on request.
• Rule 4, regulatory information: your SRA number and the digital badge on your website, and your SRA number on letterhead and emails.

What must every SRA-regulated firm's website show?

Four things, whatever kind of law you practise: your SRA number, the SRA digital badge, your complaints procedure, and how and when someone can complain to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA. Prices are only compulsory for the services in the next section.

What	Rule	Who it applies to	Where we'd put it
SRA number	4.1	Every SRA-authorised firm	Footer of every page, and again on the contact page
SRA digital badge	4.1	Every SRA-authorised firm	Footer of every page
Complaints procedure	2.1	Firms, and freelance solicitors in the circumstances the rules set out	Its own page called "Complaints", linked from the footer
How and when to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA	2.1	As above	On the complaints page
Price and service information	1.1	Firms and freelance solicitors that advertise the listed services	A page for each service, linked from that service's page
SRA number and "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority"	4.2	Every SRA-authorised firm	Letterhead and email signatures, not just the website

We'd put the badge and number in the footer because people arrive on all sorts of pages from Google, not just the homepage, and the footer is the one place that's on every page.

Which services need price and service information?

Only the services listed in Rule 1, and only if you publish as part of your usual business that you offer them. Publicly funded work is excluded. For members of the public:

• residential conveyancing: freehold or leasehold sales and purchases, mortgages and remortgages
• probate, where the assets are in the UK and the matter isn't contested
• immigration applications, excluding asylum
• immigration appeals at the First-tier Tribunal against Home Office decisions, excluding asylum
• summary only road traffic offences dealt with at a single hearing in the magistrates' court
• employment tribunal claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal, acting for the employee

For businesses:

• defending employment tribunal claims for unfair or wrongful dismissal
• debt recovery up to £100,000
• licensing applications for business premises

If you only do family law, wills or commercial work, none of this is compulsory. Plenty of firms publish prices anyway: in the SRA's year three evaluation of the rules (October 2023), 21% of firms said they already published price information for areas the rules don't cover. We think they're right: a client with no idea of the cost usually rings the firm that gave one.

What does the price information have to include?

Rule 1.5 lists seven things. In plain English:

The rule asks for	What that looks like on the page
The total cost, or an average or range where a total isn't practical	A fixed fee for a typical case, or a range with what moves the number
The basis of your charges	Fixed fee, hourly rates, or both
The experience and qualifications of whoever does the work, and of their supervisors	Years qualified, roles and the kind of matters they handle
Likely disbursements and their cost, or an average or range	Searches, Land Registry fees, the probate application fee
Whether fees and disbursements carry VAT, and how much	"Plus VAT at 20%", or the VAT amount itself
What's included, the key stages and likely timescales, and anything a client might expect to be included that isn't	A short list of stages with rough times, and a line on what costs extra
For conditional fee or damages based agreements, when clients might have to pay	Including any payment out of damages

The SRA's price and service guidance (updated 30 September 2024) adds some mandatory points that are easy to miss:

• if you aren't VAT registered, say so on the website
• if the price depends on how you deliver the service, say so, for example a higher fee face to face than online
• if you publish a range, set out the basis of your charges and the factors that decide the final price
• an online quote calculator must give the quote without anyone from the firm having to contact the enquirer first

You don't need a binding quote for every scenario; the typical cost of a service is fine. Team details can sit on your existing team pages, though we'd link to them from the price page.

Where should the information sit on your website?

Somewhere a member of the public finds it without hunting. Rule 1.6 says price information must be "clear and accessible and in a prominent place" on your website, and the guidance describes a location that's clearly signposted and easy to find.

The SRA has been more specific about complaints. In its November 2025 response to the Legal Services Board, it gave examples of a prominent place from its new complaints guidance: a clearly worded direct link from the homepage, such as "our complaints procedure", and no more than one or two clicks from the homepage. It adds that putting "complaint" in the page title and meta title helps search engines and AI answers find it. The guidance belongs to a rule change that hasn't happened yet, but it's the clearest picture the SRA has given of prominent.

On a law firm website that usually adds up to:

• the badge, the SRA number and a "Complaints" link in the footer of every page
• "Fees" or "Prices" in the main menu, or a clear link from the homepage
• a fees link on each covered service page, going straight to that service's prices
• prices on a proper web page rather than a PDF, so they read well on a phone and search engines can index them

The price guidance also suggests other formats for clients less comfortable online, and easier to read versions or other languages, including Welsh, where that helps. Our website accessibility guide covers the site side.

How do you add the SRA digital badge?

Register your website address in mySRA, then add a short piece of code from Yoshki, the SRA's technology partner. It's free for SRA-regulated firms and has been compulsory since 25 November 2019.

• Register the address. Your authorised signatory or organisation contact logs into mySRA, opens My Organisations, picks the firm, then Office Details, edits the office and saves the website address.
• Wait. The SRA says allow at least 24 hours before using the badge, or up to five working days if you're adding several websites or subdomains.
• Add the code. Choose one of the three colour versions, or the Welsh one, on Yoshki's site and give the code to whoever manages your website.

Things that catch firms out: the badge shows the current date, because the SRA checks registered websites daily, so a copied image gives itself away. It's for the website only, never emails or print. It doesn't replace stating you're regulated and giving your SRA number. And it only works on addresses linked in mySRA, so if a redesign moves you to a new domain, register it well before launch day.

Clicking the badge opens an SRA page confirming your firm is regulated and what protection that gives. The SRA says that in an online trial of nearly 2,000 people, 79% felt more comfortable choosing a provider showing a regulator's logo.

What should your complaints page say?

How to complain to you, and how and when to complain to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA. The SRA publishes suggested wording, written with the Ombudsman, which you can adapt or swap for your own if it covers the same ground. What makes the page useful:

• Who to contact. A named person or role, with an email address and a phone number.
• The eight weeks. The Ombudsman gives a firm up to eight weeks to put things right before the client can bring the complaint to it.
• The time limits. Per the SRA's suggested text: within six months of your final response, and no more than one year from the problem or from when the client should reasonably have known of it. These changed in April 2023, so an older complaints page may show the old limits.
• Ombudsman or SRA. The Ombudsman deals with poor service. The SRA deals with behaviour, such as dishonesty, taking or losing client money, or treating someone unfairly because of their age, a disability or another characteristic.
• It's free. The SRA's codes say complaints must be dealt with promptly, fairly and free of charge. Say so on the page.

Is anything changing in 2025 and 2026?

Probably for complaints, and not for prices yet. None of this is in force as of October 2026.

• Complaints information to be prominent. On 14 October 2025 the SRA applied to the Legal Services Board to extend Rule 2, so complaints information would have to be "clear, accessible and in a prominent place" on your website, the same wording Rule 1.6 uses for prices. It also wanted that information given at the end of a matter, on request and when a complaint is made. The LSB's records show the SRA withdrew the application on 9 January 2026.
• A second consultation. From 3 July to 1 September 2026 the SRA consulted on two more rules: clients get a timeline for resolution when they first complain, and regular updates after that. It also proposed a Complaints Handling Requirements Statement. The SRA says its final proposals, including the areas from the 2025 consultation, will then go to the LSB for approval.
• Wider transparency work on pause. In its draft business plan for 2026/27 (consultation closed 22 June 2026), the SRA said it would pause further work building on the evaluation of the transparency rules, and on quality indicators and comparison tools, to put client money first. In November 2025 it said a year five evaluation of the rules was underway and due in 2026.

Our take: don't wait for the complaints rule. Name the page "Complaints", link it from the footer, and check it's no more than two clicks from your homepage. It's an afternoon's work and it's what the SRA has already said it wants.

How does the SRA check, and what happens if you get it wrong?

It looks at firms' websites. In 2021 the SRA asked every firm with a website to declare that it complied, and spot checks then suggested as many as two-thirds weren't fully compliant. Since 2023 it has checked websites as an ongoing programme. By November 2025 it had assessed 2,117 firms' websites, brought 1,126 firms into compliance, sent 838 warning letters to firms whose 2021 declarations were inaccurate, and issued 55 fixed financial penalties.

It starts with a letter saying what's missing and giving the firm time to fix it. If it doesn't, the SRA investigates, which can end in an official warning or a fixed penalty. Those figures include firms with no published complaints procedure, or that weren't pointing clients to the Legal Ombudsman correctly.

What our law firm clients' websites show

Two firms we've built for, with two ways of putting this on the page. We're describing their live sites in October 2026, not auditing them.

Chubb Bulleid, Somerset

Chubb Bulleid are solicitors in Street, Somerton, Taunton and Wells, and we rebuilt their brand and website. On chubb-bulleid.co.uk:

• Every page's footer says the firm is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and links to "Feedback and Complaints".
• The complaints page works through numbered questions: what counts as a complaint, who handles it (named, with a direct email and phone number), that it's free, when you'll get an acknowledgement, when the Ombudsman can help and its time limits, and what goes to the SRA.
• The probate and employment pages each have a "Timescales and fees" link. The probate one gives a fixed fee for a simple grant only application, hourly rates by role plus VAT, a table of disbursements with average costs, rough timescales, and a pointer to the team page for experience and qualifications.
• The conveyancing page links to a fee calculator. It asks a few questions about the property, then shows an estimate with the fee, the VAT and the total, and a guide to disbursements, without asking for a name or email address first.

The site runs on WordPress with a custom theme, so the firm can keep fees and timescales up to date without calling us.

Burningham & Brown, Bath

Burningham & Brown are private client solicitors in Bath. On their site:

• The SRA digital badge appears on every page we checked, beside a line saying the firm is authorised and regulated by the SRA, with its SRA number.
• Pricing is in the main menu. The pricing page is headed "Transparency Rules" and names the two covered services the firm offers, probate and residential conveyancing, each with its own page.
• The probate pricing page gives fee ranges plus VAT for simple and complex estates, with the hours expected and the hourly rate, a list of what counts as a simple estate, the disbursements, what the service includes, and timescales.
• Complaints sits under About in the menu, as numbered steps with a timescale in working days for each, then sections on the SRA and the Legal Ombudsman.

How we build this into a law firm website

Our law firm websites page lists "regulation in view": your SRA badge and authorisation details where visitors and the rules expect them. We map every area of law before any design, which is the point to decide which services need a price page and where it links from.

Keeping it current is the part that slips. Fees go up, people leave, and figures you don't set change too: GOV.UK's probate fees page, updated 1 October 2026, puts the application fee at £526 for estates over £5,000, so an older probate page may be quoting the wrong number. On our sites you can change fees and timescales yourself, or email them to us. Updates and support are included in every plan.

What we leave to you: the figures and the sign-off. We build the pages, the links and the place for the badge. We don't set your prices or decide whether your wording meets the rules. That's for your compliance officer, and the SRA's Professional Ethics helpline takes questions about your obligations. If you want the content itself reviewed, that's a job for a legal compliance consultant.

If your site needs rebuilding around all this, see what a law firm website from us includes. Prices start at £995, or £95 a month, for five pages, plus VAT.

Frequently asked questions

Do the Transparency Rules apply to freelance solicitors?

Partly. The price and complaints rules apply to solicitors practising in the circumstances set out in the SRA's Authorisation of Individuals Regulations, which covers freelance solicitors. The badge and SRA number rule is written for authorised firms. A solicitor working outside an SRA-regulated firm who doesn't have to hold the SRA's minimum insurance must tell clients so before taking them on, and where it applies, that they can't apply to the SRA Compensation Fund.

Can we put the SRA badge in our email signature?

No. The SRA says the badge can only be used on your website, not in emails or print. Your emails and letterhead do need your SRA number and the words "authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority" under Rule 4.2.

What if our firm doesn't have a website?

Then the price and complaints information has to be available on request. The SRA's guidance says people shouldn't have to give detailed information about themselves before they can get it.

Sources

All checked 16 October 2026.

• Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA Transparency Rules, current version in effect from 11 April 2025. Rules 1 to 4, the service list and the costs information contents.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, Transparency in price and service guidance, updated 30 September 2024. Mandatory requirements, VAT, delivery models, quote generators, team details, other formats.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, Publishing complaints procedure guidance, updated 23 March 2023. Suggested wording, Legal Ombudsman time limits, the SRA's role, Professional Ethics helpline.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, Clickable logo and Clickable logo Q&A. mySRA registration, timings, Yoshki, the daily date check, website only, free, compulsory from 25 November 2019, the 79% trial figure.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, Response to the LSB statement of policy on first-tier complaints, 17 November 2025. Proposed Rule 2 change, prominent place examples, website checks and enforcement figures, year five evaluation.
• Legal Services Board, Applications to alter regulatory arrangements. SRA first-tier complaints application, 14 October 2025, withdrawn 9 January 2026.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA consults on additional rules on how firms handle complaints, 3 July 2026.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, Draft Business Plan and funding requirement 2026/27, consultation closed 22 June 2026. Pause on further transparency work.
• Solicitors Regulation Authority, Year Three Evaluation of the SRA Transparency Rules, 24 October 2023. The 2018 introduction, the CMA's 2016 study, voluntary price publishing.
• Legal Ombudsman, How to complain (eight weeks) and Scheme Rules (April 2023 version, changes to time limits).
• GOV.UK, Applying for probate: fees, updated 1 October 2026.
• Chubb Bulleid, chubb-bulleid.co.uk: homepage footer, complaints page, probate timescales and fees, conveyancing fee calculator.
• Burningham & Brown, burninghambrown.com: homepage, pricing, probate pricing, complaints.
• Bare: law firm websites (regulation in view, editing fees and timescales, prices) and the Chubb Bulleid case study.