Covid-19: Suspension of Quality Assurance peer review schemes and compliance audit visits

As a result of the measures introduced to deal with the current pandemic, we have suspended the Quality Assurance Schemes for the time being.

We know that solicitors’ firms will be under resource and financial pressures over this period and the logistics of file retrieval and dispatch are also likely to be far more complicated at this time.

No new reviews will be set up, and no extended reviews at solicitors’ offices will be arranged either.

There are a number of reviews still being worked on, and we will be looking to complete these where we can, although they may take longer than usual.

We will be in touch with solicitors to discuss the best ways of returning any files.

The regular Quality Assurance Committee meetings at SLAB and the Law Society of Scotland have now been cancelled for the time being, and we are each developing the most effective method of taking Committee decisions on these outstanding reviews by electronic means.

We have also suspended compliance audit visits over this period. No compliance audits are being scheduled until further notice.

The team is continuing to work remotely.

Please do respond by email to any correspondence we may have sent you about audits completed prior to the government public health restrictions, but if you would like more time to respond due to current circumstances, please get in touch with the team to arrange this.

Compliance team contact details are on the Solicitor section of our Contact us page.

Brian Millar, Manager, Compliance & Investigations
E: millarbr@slab.org.uk T: 0131 240 2043

Kingsley Thomas, Head of Criminal Legal Assistance
E: thomaski@slab.org.uk T: 0131 240 2085