Self-Reporting under the SRA Rules

We have an obligation to report to the SRA under rules 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8. 7.6 requires any criminal charges to be reported, 7.7 requires any serious misconduct to be reported and 7.8 requires anything that you believe the SRA might reasonably need to know about to be reported. Failing to report, when you have an obligation to do so, is misconduct.

If any person threatens to report you, or does report you to any regulator or law enforcement, then you must let the Director of Operations and Compliance know without delay. If you are considering making a self-report, then you must let the Director of Operations and Compliance know.

Driving offences dealt with by a Fixed Penalty Notice or a Penalty Charge Notice are not reportable under rule 7.6 as they are civil enforcement and not criminal enforcement. Any driving offence that is dealt with via the courts is a criminal matter and is reportable.

However, under rules 7.7 and 7.8 a driving offence might become reportable. It would depend on the offence in question, but some factors to consider are:

• Was it particularly serious, e.g. doing 50 MPH in a 30 zone?
• Have you received several such fines and so this shows a pattern of behaviour?
• Does it show conduct that runs counter to your duty to act in a way that upholds public trust and confidence in the profession, e.g. parking in front of a fire station, such as to endanger lives?
• Was it in any other way linked to any other non-serious breach, such that together the conduct becomes serious and reportable?

If you would like guidance, then, you can call the SRA Professional Ethics helpline in confidence (i.e. on a no names basis) and ask them if the matter is reportable. You can also call the Director of Operations and Compliance. If you decide not to report, for any reason, then you should document your reasons and send yourself an email from and to your personal account in this regard. If you wish to have certainty, you should make the report.