Price publication rules: which work types they cover
The SRA Transparency Rules have required price and service information for specified work types since 6 December 2018. This page does not list those work types, because we cannot source the list to a document we have checked. What it gives is the method a firm uses to decide which of its own services are in scope.
Last updated: 5 August 2026
Why does this page not list the work types?
Because we have not read the list in a primary source, and a marketing supplier reciting a regulatory list from memory is how firms end up publishing the wrong thing.
The material we hold records that the rules have been in force since 6 December 2018 and that publication is required for specified work types. It does not enumerate them. We could copy an enumeration off another supplier's website in about a minute, and it would look authoritative on the page. It would also be unsourced, and this audience checks.
A damaging admission, early: we do not advise on obligations at all. We are not in a position to, we do not carry the professional exposure that would make the advice worth having, and a firm that needs the rule applied to its own service lines needs somebody other than its website supplier. Of the 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read in full on 3 August 2026, 8 claimed a guarantee of some kind. A guarantee about a regulatory position is offered by the party who never has to answer for it.
What we can do usefully is set out the method, because the method is a project-management problem rather than a legal one, and it is where most firms actually get stuck.
How does a firm work out which of its own services are in scope?
By listing what it sells first, and applying the rule second. Almost every firm does it the other way round.
The common failure is to start from a list of categories found somewhere and try to match services to it. That produces two errors at once: services that are not on the list get no priced page even where the firm would benefit from one, and services get forced into a category they do not sit in because a name looked close enough.
Starting from the firm's own service lines avoids both. The question then becomes one the firm can actually answer with its own advisers: for each thing we sell to the public today, does the price publication requirement reach it.
Three practical notes on doing it that way:
- Use the words clients use, not the words the file uses. A service described internally as "residential property" is bought as "buying a house", and the two produce different pages.
- List what is sold today, not what the firm is known for. Practices drift, and a service nobody has taken on in three years does not need a page.
- Split by how it is charged, not only by area. One area of work charged three ways is three answers, and the fee basis is what the page has to state.
Residential conveyancing in Bristol runs 1,440 searches a month at £17.75 a click, measured 3 August 2026 — a useful reminder that the services most likely to sit inside a publication requirement are usually the ones with the most demand behind them.
Who inside the firm should sign that decision off?
Somebody who can stand behind it in front of the regulator. In most firms that is the COLP, or a partner acting with the COLP's knowledge.
This matters more than it sounds. The published price information is a statement by the firm, not by its website supplier. When it is wrong, the firm answers for it. That has one practical consequence for how the work is commissioned: the scoping decision and the fee wording should be approved by a named person inside the firm before anything is published, and the approval should be recorded with a date against it.
Where a firm is unsure of its position, the correct order is advice first, pages second. A compliance consultancy or the firm's own advisers can answer the question. We build pages. Those are different services, and a firm that buys them in the wrong order pays twice.
What does a scoping decision look like written down?
A short record, one row per service, that somebody can pick up in a year and understand.
| Question the firm answers | Who answers it | What the answer changes |
|---|---|---|
| Which services does the firm offer to the public today? | The practice, service line by service line | The list everything else runs on |
| Does the price publication requirement reach this one? | The firm, with its own advisers | Whether a priced page is needed at all |
| On what basis is it charged? | The fee earner responsible | What the page can honestly state |
| Which disbursements attach, and at what amounts? | Finance, with the fee earner | Whether the figure on the page is the whole figure |
| Who approved the wording, and when? | A named individual, usually the COLP | Whether the page is a statement the firm can stand behind |
| When is this row revisited? | Whoever owns the record | Whether the page is still true next year |
The record is what lets a new practice manager or a new supplier understand why a page says what it says, without reconstructing a conversation nobody wrote down.
What happens when a firm adds or drops a service?
The scoping decision reopens, and nothing on the website notices.
This is the failure mode nobody sells against, because it happens two years after the site was built. A firm takes on a new service line, a fee earner leaves and a service quietly stops, or a fee basis changes. The published pages carry on saying what they said.
Three triggers worth writing into the record above:
- A new service line offered to the public. New row, new decision, possibly a new page.
- A change in how an existing service is charged. The page's central statement is now wrong even though the service still exists.
- A fee earner joining or leaving, where the profile is what the price page points at for qualifications and experience.
A yearly read-through catches most of it. Nothing about our work does this for a firm — we build to the decision the firm gives us, and if the decision changes and nobody tells us, the site stays as it was.
What does the work cost, and what will it not do?
Fixed and published.
| Product | Price |
|---|---|
| Price Transparency Pack | £890, ten working days |
| Firm Site | £2,400 |
| Firm Site+ | £4,200 |
| Authority Build | £6,900 |
| Retainer, monthly | £600 · £1,200 · £2,400, no minimum term |
£700 comes off the build when it is taken with six months of retainer, and nothing is priced per enquiry, per matter or per client — LASPO 2012 section 56 prohibits referral fees in prescribed legal business and binds the paying firm as much as the party paid.
For scale, 100 Bristol conveyancing clicks at £17.75 is £1,775 at Google's own prices, measured 3 August 2026. That is arithmetic on a click price and not a forecast.
What the pack will not do: it will not tell a firm which services are in scope, it will not approve the fee wording, and it will not put the firm in a position to say it complies. It builds the pages the firm's own decision produces.
Whether your own site meets this
The check takes about two minutes and lists which priced pages are absent from your site, service by service, from your own answers. It is not a compliance assessment — that judgement belongs to the firm and its COLP — and it is free either way.
If you want the pages built rather than listed, the Price Transparency Pack is £890 and takes ten working days.
Where should I read next?
On what the rules ask to be published, and what "published" means for a web page: what the SRA transparency rules require on a website.
Once a service is in scope, the page itself: price transparency pages, what good looks like.
Further out: law firm marketing techniques, lawyer content marketing, personal injury lawyer marketing and law firm SEO specialist.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this page not list the specified work types?
Because we have not read the list in a primary source. The material we hold records that publication is required for specified work types and does not enumerate them, and reciting a regulatory list from an unverified source is worse than declining to.
Who decides whether a particular service is in scope?
The firm, with its own advisers, usually with the COLP owning the decision. It is an application of the rule to one practice's facts, and a website supplier does not hold those facts or the professional exposure that goes with the answer.
Should a firm start from its services or from the rule?
From its services. Starting from a list of categories produces two errors: services that need a priced page do not get one, and services get forced into a category they do not sit in because the name looked close.
What should be recorded about the decision?
One row per service: what the service is, whether the requirement reaches it, how it is charged, which disbursements attach, who approved the wording and when, and when the row is revisited. A record nobody wrote down has to be reconstructed from a conversation.
What happens when the firm changes what it sells?
The decision reopens and the website does not notice. A new service line, a change in how an existing service is charged, or a fee earner joining or leaving are all triggers, and a yearly read-through catches most of them.
Do you advise on which services are covered?
No. We do not advise on obligations at all, and a firm needing the rule applied to its own service lines needs somebody other than its website supplier. Advice first, pages second, or the firm pays twice.
What does it cost to have the pages built?
The Price Transparency Pack is £890 and takes ten working days on an existing site. Builds are £2,400, £4,200 and £6,900, retainers £600, £1,200 or £2,400 a month with no minimum term.