Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review the support available to victims of fraud involving a solicitor.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) regulates the conduct of solicitors and those who breach the conduct rules can be struck off or prosecuted before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT). Whilst the SRA does operate a compensation fund, this is for those who have suffered financial loss caused by a solicitor, rather than for those who have lost funds by other means. In response to the question of reviewing these discretionary compensation payments made by the SRA I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 29 April 2020 to question PQ38895.

Where fraud cases are prosecuted, the court has powers to award compensation. In other cases, the Financial Ombudsman Service is available for complaints between consumers and businesses that provide financial services.