SQE1 Specification Changes for January 2027: Every SRA Update Explained

The Short Version

On 30 April 2026, the Solicitors Regulation Authority published updated SQE Assessment Specifications and a revised Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) document following its annual review. The updates apply to every SQE assessment that takes place after 1 September 2026 — which makes January 2027 the first SQE1 sitting on the refreshed specification.

If that sentence just made your stomach drop because you have been revising all summer: relax, then read on. Here is what actually matters:

• No subjects were added or removed. All 13 SQE1 subjects remain, split across FLK1 and FLK2 exactly as before.
• The exam format is unchanged. Still 180 single best answer questions per paper, still two papers, still closed-book.
• One change genuinely alters how you should revise: where a tax question requires you to apply the monetary value of an exemption, relief, rate or threshold, the figures will now be provided in the question. Memorising the nil rate band is officially over.
• A handful of topics were expanded or newly named — mostly in wills and probate, trusts, property practice and criminal practice — and a few items were deleted or moved.
• Terminology was modernised in several places. Your notes should use the new vocabulary, because the questions will.

This guide goes through every published change, subject by subject, in plain English — then gives you a practical checklist for telling whether your study materials have kept up. The official change list is on the SRA's SQE changes page; what follows is that document translated into revision decisions.

The Dates That Frame This

Two adjacent changes share the September 2026 boundary and are easy to confuse with the specification refresh. The first is the fee rise: SQE1 goes from £1,934 to £2,006 for bookings made from October 2026 — the timing strategy for paying the old rate is in our fee increase guide. The second is cadence: the SRA now reviews the specifications annually, so checking the current spec belongs on your yearly calendar, not your one-off setup list.

For full sitting dates, booking deadlines and the results timeline, see the SQE1 exam dates guide.

The Headline Change: Tax Figures Will Be Provided

Buried in the updated assessment guidance is the sentence that should change your revision plan more than any other. Where a question requires candidates to apply the monetary value of an exemption, relief, rate or threshold, the SRA has confirmed that these will be provided.

Under the old approach, prep materials drilled candidates on remembering figures like the £325,000 inheritance tax nil rate band, because a question might silently assume it. From January 2027, if a computation turns on a monetary value, the question supplies that value.

Be precise about what this does and does not mean:

• Provided: the numbers — rates, bands, thresholds, monetary limits of exemptions and reliefs, where the question requires you to apply them.
• Still on you: everything that makes the numbers usable. Which relief exists. Whether this taxpayer qualifies for it. What order the computation runs in. Which transfer is potentially exempt and which is immediately chargeable. The questions still test tax law — they have simply stopped testing your memory for figures that change with every Finance Act.

The subjects this touches are the three that carry tax content: Business Law and Practice (income tax, corporation tax, VAT), Property Practice (property taxation) and Wills and the Administration of Estates (inheritance tax).

The practical consequence: stop spending flashcard repetitions on raw figures, and reallocate that time to computation method and relief conditions. A candidate who knows how business asset disposal relief works but not its current threshold is now fully equipped; a candidate who memorised the threshold but cannot run the calculation is exactly as stuck as they always were.

FLK1: What Changed, Subject by Subject

Business Law and Practice

• Legal personality and limited liability now carries an explicit scope note: sole traders, partnerships, LLPs, and private and unlisted public companies.
• Funding options (debt and equity) expressly includes redemption and buyback of shares — and expressly excludes other reductions of share capital and financial assistance.
• The corporation tax entries are clarified: basis of charge spelled out as calculation of income profits and chargeable gains, allowable deductions, and the main reliefs and exemptions.

What it means: the buyback line is the useful one. Share buybacks and redemption are squarely examinable; the more exotic capital-reduction procedures and financial assistance are squarely out. That is a boundary you can plan around — see the high-frequency topic map in our business law traps guide.

Dispute Resolution

• The enforcement method formerly listed as "oral examination" is now "obtaining information from a judgment debtor".

What it means: substance unchanged — same procedure, but the specification now uses the current Civil Procedure Rules terminology. If your notes or question bank still say "oral examination" with no mention of the modern name, that is a dating clue worth noticing. Full subject coverage in our Dispute Resolution guide.

Contract Law

• For conditions, warranties and innominate terms, classification and interpretation are now two separate bullet points rather than one.

What it means: presentational only. The law you need is identical.

Legal System of England and Wales

• "The judiciary" becomes "judicial function".
• "The appeal system" is deleted as a Legal System item — appeals are examined where they naturally arise, in civil and criminal procedure.
• "Legitimacy" is deleted as a standalone item.

What it means: slightly less standalone constitutional abstraction. Do not un-learn how appeals work — routes of appeal remain examinable inside Dispute Resolution and Criminal Practice. The deletion is about where the knowledge is tested, not whether.

Legal Services

• The legal aid line loses the word "criminal": eligibility for criminal legal aid is no longer listed as a Legal Services point (civil legal aid eligibility remains).

No changes published

Tort Law and Constitutional and Administrative Law (including retained EU law) have no amendments in the published change list. If those are your strong subjects, nothing moved under you.

FLK2: What Changed, Subject by Subject

Property Practice

The longest list of refinements, almost all of which make previously implicit process knowledge explicit:

• Pre-contract searches and enquiries: the specification now covers the range and purpose of searches, who makes them, and the issues that could arise from the results.
• "Drafting the sale contract" appears as its own item.
• Exchange of contracts now expressly includes the Law Society's formulae for exchange.
• Pre-completion steps now include financial considerations and apportionments.
• New item: drafting the contract for the assignment of a lease.
• The Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 entry is expanded: application of the Act including contracting out.

What it means: the conveyancing transaction is now examinable end-to-end at the drafting level, not just the what-happens-when level. If your materials treat the Law Society exchange formulae or lease-assignment drafting as a footnote, upgrade them to named topics. Our Property Practice guide walks the full transaction in this order.

Wills and the Administration of Estates

The subject with the most new explicit detail:

• Will validity now expressly lists knowledge and approval, and — new — who has the burden of proof when validity is challenged.
• Executor appointment gains sub-points on eligibility and suitability.
• Use and effect of codicils is now the explicit framing for alterations.
• Revocation methods are now itemised: later will, codicil, destruction, marriage and civil partnership — with a separate express point on the effect of divorce or dissolution on an existing will (replacing the old combined marriage-and-divorce line).
• Grants of representation now spell out the order of priority for applicants, both where there is a will and on intestacy, and the application procedure is named per grant type: probate, letters of administration with will annexed, letters of administration.
• Inheritance tax burden and liability is expanded to cover personal representatives, beneficiaries, trustees and co-owners.
• Personal representatives' duties get detailed sub-points — collecting in assets, preserving value, paying expenses, following the terms, accounting to beneficiaries — plus express coverage of protections regarding unknown, missing and insolvent beneficiaries and creditors.
• Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 are refined to the ground plus the factors the court will take into account.
• On the tax side, lifetime transfers are split into those immediately chargeable and those potentially exempt, with gifts with a reservation of benefit expressly named.

What it means: private client was already one of the heaviest FLK2 areas — the refresh does not add new law so much as tell you precisely which procedural corners are fair game. Burden of proof on validity challenges, grant priority orders and PR protections are the kind of detail that separates a prepared candidate from a nearly prepared one. Full walkthrough in our Wills and Administration guide.

Trusts Law

• The exceptions to the constitution rules are now named: the rule in Re Rose, the rule in Strong v Bird, and Choithram v Pagarani.
• Resulting trusts are reorganised into automatic and presumed categories.
• Stranger liability is renamed to current usage: knowing receipt and dishonest assistance (replacing "recipient liability" and "accessory liability").

What it means: the SQE1 specification names very few cases — so when it names three, treat that as a direct signal. All three constitution exceptions belong on your must-know cases list. And check your materials' vocabulary: if your trusts chapter still says "accessory liability", it predates this refresh. Subject guide here.

Criminal Law and Practice

• New item: requirements of a lawful interview under PACE 1984 Code C.
• Bail is expanded to the procedure for applying for and opposing bail.
• Burden and standard of proof moves from the evidence list into trial procedure.
• Hearsay gains an express point on challenging admissibility.
• The confession-evidence entry drops its express "and 78" statutory reference.
• Bad character is clarified as a single term, and "procedure for admitting bad character evidence" is deleted.
• New item: relevance of the defendant's good character.
• Newton hearings are expanded to applicability and procedure.
• The youth court entry becomes "youth court procedure and hearings", and there is a new item on the role of the Robbery — Sentencing Children and Young People guideline.

What it means: two genuinely new preparation points (lawful-interview requirements under Code C; the robbery youth-sentencing guideline), one strong nudge (good character), and sharper procedural framing throughout. Criminal is the largest FLK2 subject and rewards exactly this kind of targeted update — our Criminal Law guide covers the full syllabus.

No changes published

Land Law and Solicitors Accounts have no amendments in the published change list.

Deleted or Moved: What You Can (Carefully) Cross Off

For the list-keepers, the items that disappeared:

• Legitimacy (Legal System) — deleted.
• The appeal system (Legal System) — deleted there; appeals remain examinable within civil and criminal procedure.
• Criminal legal aid (Legal Services) — removed from that subject's list.
• Procedure for admitting bad character evidence (Criminal Practice) — deleted.
• The express section 78 reference in the confession bullet — dropped.
• The combined "effect of marriage and divorce on a testator" line (Wills) — superseded by the more precise revocation and divorce points described above.

One caution before you celebrate: a deletion from one subject's list is a scope clarification, not an announcement that the law stopped existing. Appeals still matter where procedure is tested; challenges to confession evidence still matter within Code C and fairness principles. Cross things off your standalone revision list, not your understanding.

So Is SQE1 Getting Harder in January 2027?

The honest answer: there is no evidence it is. Read as a whole, the refresh is boundary-drawing — the SRA telling candidates more precisely what was always fair game, trimming a little rote load (tax figures), and adding explicit detail in areas where vague syllabus lines used to force over-preparation.

Nothing changes about scoring either. The pass mark continues to be set per sitting through the same standard-setting process, and your result is still reported as a scaled score. The exam you should picture is the same exam — with slightly clearer edges.

The real risk is not the changes themselves. It is preparing from materials that predate them: notes that drill tax figures you will be handed, chapters using terminology the questions no longer use, and gaps where the newly explicit items (Code C interviews, grant priority, lease-assignment drafting) simply are not covered.

Is Your Study Material Current? The Six-Point Check

Run any question bank, textbook or notes package through these six checks:

1. Tax questions provide the figures. If practice questions still expect you to recall the nil rate band or CGT annual exempt amount from memory, they are testing the pre-2027 style.
2. The trusts chapter says "knowing receipt" and "dishonest assistance" — not "recipient liability" and "accessory liability".
3. Enforcement in civil litigation says "obtaining information from a judgment debtor" — with at most a historical nod to "oral examination".
4. The constitution section names Re Rose, Strong v Bird and Choithram v Pagarani.
5. Executor coverage handles both eligibility and suitability, and probate coverage includes the order of priority for grants.
6. The criminal chapter covers lawful-interview requirements under Code C and Newton hearings at the level of procedure, not just definition.

Where our platform stands, for transparency: when the SRA published the change list, we audited every item against our question bank, flashcards and notes and folded the updated wording in — the new terminology, the newly named constitution cases, executor eligibility and suitability, the youth-sentencing guideline, and tax questions presented the way the refreshed specification describes, with monetary values provided. If you practise on our question bank, you are practising the January 2027 specification, not the July 2026 one.

What To Do Now, by Cohort

Sitting January 2027? This specification is yours. Build your plan now — the 6-month week-by-week schedule maps almost exactly onto a late-July start, and this guide to study hours helps you size the commitment. Booking is not yet open; watch the SRA page from early autumn and remember the fee change rewards booking promptly once it is.

Sat July 2026 and waiting? Your sitting was assessed on the outgoing specification — nothing here affects your result, which is due on 8 September 2026. If the result goes the wrong way and you resit in January, the change list above is your delta: small, finite, and mostly covered in a focused week. Our resit guide covers the rest of the recovery plan.

Aiming at July 2027 or later? Note the cadence: specifications are now reviewed annually, with updates published in spring applying from September. Check the current documents once a year before you buy or build materials, and date-stamp everything you keep. The full syllabus map is in our subjects and topics guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did any SQE1 subjects change for January 2027?

No. The same 13 subjects sit in the same FLK1/FLK2 split. The refresh reworded, expanded or trimmed individual topic lines within subjects — it did not add or remove subjects, and the 180-question format of each paper is unchanged.

Does the July 2026 sitting use the new specification?

No. July 2026 was the final SQE1 sitting assessed on the outgoing specification. The updated documents apply to assessments after 1 September 2026, so the first affected SQE1 is January 2027 (the first affected assessment of any kind is SQE2 in October 2026).

Do I need to buy new study materials for January 2027?

Not necessarily. The changes are refinements, and good 2026 materials remain substantially valid. Run the six-point check above: if your materials use the current terminology, name the newly explicit topics and present tax questions with figures provided, they are fine. If they fail several checks, they predate the refresh — at minimum, patch the gaps from the official change list.

Will the pass mark be different because of the new specification?

The pass mark was never a fixed number — it is set for each sitting through the SRA's standard-setting process, and that process is unchanged. Expect the same style of scaled scoring and quintile reporting as previous sittings.

Where are the official documents?

The change summary is on the SRA's SQE changes page, alongside the full SQE1 Assessment Specification that applies from 1 September 2026. Assessment dates and booking windows live on the SRA booking pages.

Does this affect SQE2 as well?

Yes — the same FLK underpins SQE2, so the equivalent updates apply there, and SQE2's October 2026 sitting is the first assessment on the new documents. Some SQE2 practice-area naming was also aligned with SQE1. If SQE2 is next on your horizon, our SQE2 preparation guide covers the format and skills.

The Bottom Line

The January 2027 refresh is the most candidate-friendly kind of change: clearer boundaries, less rote arithmetic, a short list of newly explicit topics, and modernised language. Treat it as a checklist, not a crisis — patch the deltas, retire the tax-figure flashcards, and make sure every practice question you sit was written for the specification you will actually face.

If you want that last part handled for you: build a free study plan around your January date, then practise on a question bank that already speaks the 2027 specification's language.