Current Consultations

Ongoing Competence Proposals - Your input needed

Since publishing our response to the 2022 Public Consultation on principles of CPD proposals and undertaking additional workshops in 2023, we have developed a new Ongoing Competence Code which incorporates those high-level principles and feedback received. This proposed Code is intended to replace the current CPD Code and CPD Framework. 

In summary, our proposed code:

• aligns our approach with the steer given by our regulator, the Legal Services Board, within their policy statement on Ongoing Competence. 
• replaces the current hourly-based requirement with an activity-based requirement (which 83% of the 2022 consultation respondents supported), with a proportion of these being 'assessed', and it standardises requirements across all CLC lawyers, irrespective of the type of licence they hold.
• identifies Core Topics which form part of everyday practice and which should be refreshed by our Community every few years, as stipulated by the CLC (initially set at every 3 years);
• reflects the annual Risk Agenda (by way of introducing Suggested Topics) to provide helpful direction to CLC lawyers and support them to complete ongoing competence activities on topics which have associated current or emerging risks.
• continues to synchronise the ongoing competence requirements with the existing licensing year, and continues to include CLC sampling of ongoing competence records.
• introduces a practice-level responsibility for ongoing competence (which 84% supported) whereby practices must report the ongoing competence activity of their key compliance personnel - e.g. a CLC Registered manager; HoLP (Head of Legal Practice); HoFA (Head of Finance and Administration); MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) - annually to the CLC. 
• enables ongoing competence activity to be used by the CLC as a tool for remediation (which 64% supported, and 20% did not have a strong view).

We want to ensure that our proposals are easy to understand, feasible, and that you have the opportunity to discuss any unforeseen impacts of our proposals that you think have not yet been considered but need to be.

>> Respond to our questionnaire, submit your questions and observations via this link <<

Consultation Materials to review

• DRAFT Ongoing Competence Code
• Ongoing Competence Consultation and Engagement pack

Additional information:

As part of this consultation, on 24 and 26 March, we ran four online events for CLC Practices and CLC Lawyers to explain the proposed changes in more detail and invite any further feedback you may have prior to us finalising the draft Code and seeking approval from the Legal Services Board. 

• Presentation slides used within the Ongoing Competence consultation events
• Recorded Presentation - 26 March 2025
• Recorded Q&A session - 24 March 2025

Have your say

>> Respond to our questionnaire, submit your questions and observations via this link <<

Next steps

The feedback form will remain open until 5pm on 11 April 2025. We will then consider all feedback received, make any changes to the Code as necessary and determine whether it is ready to be submitted to the Legal Services Board for their approval. After submitting our application to the Legal Services Board and assuming that the proposals are approved, we will look to implement the Ongoing Competence Code from 1 November 2025, with the first reporting due by 31 October 2026.

We want to assure our regulated community that we plan to support you to understand and familiarise yourselves with the changes beforehand and throughout the year.