Contents
- 01
Know what the badge is
- 02
- 03
Assign it
What does the SRA digital badge do?
The badge is the SRA’s clickable logo, called the “digital badge” in the SRA’s rules. It shows a shield outline with an arrow, the current date and the words “Regulated by Solicitors Regulation Authority”. A click opens an SRA-hosted page that confirms the firm by name.
The SRA digital badge requirement sits in Rule 4.1 of the SRA Transparency Rules:
SRA Transparency Rules, Rule 4.1
“An authorised body must display in a prominent place on its website (or, in the case of a licensed body, the website relating to its legal services, if separate) its SRA number and the SRA’s digital badge.”
The SRA’s digital badge page gives the date it became compulsory: “Use of the logo was initially voluntary but became a mandatory requirement on 25 November 2019.”
How does the digital badge verify?
It is tied to a website registered in mySRA
The SRA states: “The logo will only work with websites linked to a regulated firm’s mySRA.” The firm registers its website address in mySRA first.
The code comes from Yoshki and validation runs daily
Yoshki, the SRA’s development partner, administers the scheme. The firm gets the badge code from Yoshki, and the logo “will automatically display once this code is added to your site”. Verification software works in the background, checking that the site is registered to a regulated firm and rendering the current date.
The SRA validates registered websites daily. That checking runs on SRA and Yoshki infrastructure, not on the firm’s server.
What a copied image shows
The SRA’s Q&A page says: “A valid logo should always have the current date on it.” A saved image cannot update its date. The same page says: “You are not allowed to reproduce it elsewhere.”
After changing website details in mySRA, allow at least 24 hours before testing the badge.
Why does a website management policy bring the badge into the firm’s evidence?
A principal might put the position this way:
“We have a policy for everything the standard asks for. What I could not tell you is who has done anything about the website since we wrote it.”
For a firm accredited under Lexcel, website management sits under Information Management and Security. The open question is who has looked at the website since the policy was written, and the badge is one visible item on it that carries its own date.
The badge duty comes from the SRA’s Transparency Rules, not from Lexcel. A dated note of each check shows who looked and when, which supports the evidence behind the website management policy and Lexcel.
How do you check your SRA digital badge today?
Run four checks, in this order:
Open the live site and read the date on the badge. It should be today’s date.
Click the badge. It should open an SRA-hosted page that names the firm.
Confirm that the website address registered in mySRA matches the address the site runs on today.
Ask who owns the badge embed code, especially after a rebuild or a host change.
The first two checks test the badge itself. The third and fourth are firm-side. The fourth is an ownership question, an editorial point and not an SRA finding.
Record the date, the result of the click and the name of the owner in the policy file.
Why might the SRA badge not be working?
Other causes are NoDrama’s inference, not SRA findings. After a redesign, theme change, migration, domain change, or a change to caching or script blocking, a site may end up with a stale or missing badge. The SRA sources do not describe what happens technically when any of these interferes, so treat each as a likely cause to check, not a diagnosis.
Registration is tied to the website address in mySRA, so a changed address is likely to need updating there. Then allow at least 24 hours. The wider effect of a redesign is also inference.
Which assumptions about the badge are wrong?
The check takes under a minute. A firm with a small, stable site and a named person who checks the footer needs no service for this.
What should you do about it?
Four actions, each ending in something you can file:
- 01
Check the footer date and the click-through.
Artefact: a dated note.
- 02
Ask who owns the badge embed.
Artefact: a named owner.
- 03
Confirm the site address in mySRA.
Artefact: a screenshot or note.
- 04
Keep a dated record of site changes. The plugins and themes screens in WordPress admin show what the site is running now.
Artefact: a dated change log.
Each artefact carries a date, so the next check can be set against the last.
Someone should own the badge embed.
NoDrama’s care plans keep WordPress, plugins and themes current and include reporting, as described on the NoDrama’s WordPress maintenance page.
What this does not solve
This page makes no claim that NoDrama monitors the SRA badge or can fix it. Technical faults go to Yoshki. A dated record of what was done to the site supports website management evidence and nothing more. The page gives no information on SRA enforcement or penalties, and it does not say whether any firm is compliant.
Conclusion: a badge that shows today’s date, and someone who owns it
A working SRA digital badge shows the current date and opens an SRA-hosted page naming the firm. A copy that shows an old date is not live, and a firm can leave one in place when nobody owns the embed code. Check the footer date and the click-through, confirm the address in mySRA, and name the person responsible.