All professions usually have codes of conduct which require the
professional to act with "integrity" (for example, all
FCA and PRA-authorised firms are required to conduct their business
with integrity). This case concerned alleged breaches of the
Solicitors Regulation Authority's Code of Conduct and a central
issue was the meaning of "integrity".
Following a review of caselaw, the Court of Appeal held that
integrity is a broader concept than dishonesty. In professional
codes of conduct, it is a useful shorthand to express the higher
standards which society expects from professional persons and which
the professions expect from their own members. Although it is not
possible to formulate an all-purpose definition, the Court of
Appeal said that "Obviously, neither courts nor professional
tribunals must set unrealistically high standards, as was observed
during argument. The duty of integrity does not require
professional people to be paragons of virtue. In every
