From 11 April 2022
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has confirmed the dates for the first-ever sitting of part two of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE).
The first sitting of SQE2 will be the week commencing 11 April 2022. The written assessments will take place from 11 to 13 April and oral assessments will be 19-20 and 21-22 April.
The first-ever SQE1 assessment dates are already in the public domain, having been announced by the regulator towards the end of last year. SQE1 will take place on 8 and 11 November 2021, and has been declared safe to go ahead under current public health advice by the assessment’s independent reviewer. “Provision and planning enable exams to take place in a socially distanced manner and test centres will have enhanced cleaning and other sanitisation measures in place,” the review found.
SQE1 and SQE2 written assessments will take place at Pearson VUE test centres in the UK and internationally. SQE2 oral exams will take place at locations in Cardiff, London, and Manchester, but some oral sittings may not be available in all locations. The SRA will release more information on when bookings will open later this year.
The SQE, a two-part national assessment to be set and examined centrally, comes into force on 1 September 2021. SQE1 examines functioning legal knowledge and involves around ten hours of exams completed over the course of two days, while SQE2 focuses on practical legal skills and takes around 14 hours to complete over five half days. The total cost to sit both exams will be £3,980.
The SRA last month revealed further SQE assessment dates beyond the transitional years for 2023/24. There will be two sittings of each exam in 2023, with the SRA monitoring demand for additional SQE1 sittings. There will then be three SQE2 sittings in 2024.
