The SQE1 specification and syllabus

What the SQE1 specification is

The SQE1 specification is the SRA's published statement of what SQE1 assesses. It lists the subject areas, called functioning legal knowledge, and under each one it sets out the topics in enough detail that you can tell whether something is examinable.

It is a scope document, not a syllabus in the teaching sense. It tells you the boundary of what can be asked. It does not tell you how many questions each area gets, it does not rank the topics, and it does not teach anything. That is deliberate: SQE1 is an assessment rather than a course, so the specification defines the target and leaves preparation entirely to you.

The practical use of it is negative as much as positive. The specification carves things out explicitly, and knowing what is excluded saves as much time as knowing what is in. Business Law and Practice, for example, excludes the listing, prospectus, disclosure and transparency rules and other market rules, which is a large body of law you do not need. Checked 9 September 2026.

FLK1 subjects and what each one covers

FLK1 carries six subject areas. Broadly it is the commercial and civil half of the exam, plus the constitutional and regulatory material.

Business Law and Practice. Business and organisational characteristics across sole traders, partnerships, LLPs and private and unlisted public companies, including legal personality and limited liability. Incorporation and formation procedures, constitutional documents and Companies House filings, funding by debt and equity, corporate governance and directors' and shareholders' rights and duties, decision-making and meetings, and minority shareholder protection. Partnership authority and decision-making under the Partnership Act 1890. Corporate and personal insolvency, including CVAs and IVAs, bankruptcy, administration, liquidation, claw-back and the order of priority to creditors. Business taxation covers income tax, capital gains tax, corporation tax, VAT and business property relief for inheritance tax.

Dispute Resolution. The characteristics of arbitration, mediation and litigation, then a civil claim end to end: limitation and pre-action protocols, where to start proceedings, issuing and service inside and outside the jurisdiction, responding to a claim, statements of case, interim applications including summary judgment, interim payments and interim injunctions. Case management and the overriding objective, track allocation, sanctions and relief. Evidence, disclosure and inspection including privilege. Trial procedure, costs including Part 36 offers and budgeting, appeals, and enforcement of money judgments.

Contract Law. Formation through offer, acceptance, consideration, intention, certainty and capacity. Privity and third party rights. Terms: express, incorporated, implied by common law and statute, exemption clauses, and the classification and interpretation of conditions, warranties and innominate terms. Vitiating factors covering misrepresentation, mistake, unfair terms, duress, undue influence and illegality. Termination by expiry, breach or frustration, with restitution and unjust enrichment. Remedies including damages, liquidated sums and penalties, specific performance, injunctions, mitigation, indemnities and guarantees, plus causation and remoteness.

Tort. Negligence in full: duty and the general and professional standard of care, breach, single and multiple causation, remoteness and loss, remedies in personal injury and death claims, pure economic loss from acts and misstatements, psychiatric harm and employers' primary liability. Defences of volenti, contributory negligence and illegality. Vicarious liability. Occupiers' liability under the 1957 and 1984 Acts. Product liability in negligence and under the Consumer Protection Act 1987. Public and private nuisance, the rule in Rylands v Fletcher, and the associated remedies and defences.

Legal System and Constitutional Law. The courts, judicial function, hierarchy, appeals and rights of audience. Precedent. The structure of an Act of Parliament and of an Act of Senedd Cymru, statutory interpretation through the literal, golden, mischief and purposive approaches, and how Westminster and Senedd legislation applies to England and to Wales. Then constitutional and administrative law: parliamentary sovereignty, central government accountability, devolution, the Crown, conventions, prerogative power and parliamentary privilege. Public order law covering processions, assemblies and breach of the peace. Judicial review, its supervisory nature, standing, time limits, remedies and the grounds of illegality, irrationality, procedural impropriety and legitimate expectation. Named sections of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Convention rights in Schedule 1, and the place of EU law in the UK constitution.

Legal Services. The SRA's regulatory role, principles and risk-based regulation, reserved legal activities, professional indemnity insurance, other regulated providers and overriding obligations, including the Equality Act 2010. Money laundering: the scope of the legislation, when a suspicion must be reported and to whom and by when, the direct and non-direct involvement offences and defences under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and due diligence. Financial services: the regulatory framework and authorisation as it applies to solicitors' firms, specified investments and activities, relevant exemptions, and the application of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Funding options including private retainers, conditional fee agreements, damages based agreements, fixed fees, criminal and civil legal aid eligibility, third party funding and legal expenses insurance.

FLK2 subjects and what each one covers

FLK2 carries seven subject areas. Broadly it is property, private client, equity and the criminal half, plus solicitors accounts.

Property Practice. Freehold practice: the structure of a transaction, investigating registered title from official copy entries and unregistered title from an epitome, the issues an investigation throws up and reporting to the client. Pre-contract searches and enquiries and who makes them, the Law Society Conveyancing Protocol, sources of finance and types of mortgage, acting for a lender and the certificate of title. Drafting the contract under the Standard Conditions of Sale and the Standard Commercial Property Conditions, deposits held as stakeholder or agent, insurance and risk, exchange by the Law Society formulae and its consequences. Pre-completion searches and apportionments, completion and post-completion steps, and remedies for delayed completion including notice to complete and rescission. Leasehold practice: lease structure and content, grant, assignment, licences to assign and underlet, leasehold covenants before and after 1 January 1996, remedies for breach including forfeiture and Commercial Rent Arrears Recovery, termination, and security of tenure under Part II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. Planning law and building regulations, and property taxation covering SDLT in England, Land Transaction Tax in Wales, VAT and the option to tax, and capital gains tax with private residence relief.

Wills and the Administration of Estates. Validity of wills and codicils, testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval, duress and undue influence, formalities and the burden of proof on a challenge. Personal representatives, appointment, renunciation and reservation of power. Alterations, codicils and revocation, including the effect of marriage, civil partnership and divorce. Interpretation of wills, types of gift and failure of gifts. The intestacy rules under section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and the statutory trusts. Property passing outside the estate. Grants of representation, the order of priority under the Non-Contentious Probate Rules, application procedure, valuation, excepted estates and funding the initial inheritance tax payment. Duties, liabilities and protection of personal representatives, and distribution. Claims under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. Taxation covering lifetime chargeable and potentially exempt transfers, gifts with reservation, transfers on death, exemptions and reliefs, and income and capital gains tax during the administration period.

Solicitors Accounts. The definition of client money and the requirement to pay it into a client account, the circumstances in which it may be withheld, repayment, and the accounting entries required in each case. The client account itself, its name, the prohibition on providing banking facilities, and withdrawals. Keeping client money separate from the firm's money. Interest on client money. Breaches of the SRA Accounts Rules and the duty to correct them promptly. Records, client ledgers, reconciliations, bills, disbursements by the agency and principal methods, transfers and the VAT element. Joint accounts, a client's own account, third-party managed accounts, accountants' reports and retention of records.

Land Law. The nature of land, real and personal property, acquiring and transferring legal estates and legal and equitable interests, protecting and enforcing third party interests, and the formalities. Title: substantive registration, protecting interests on the register, interests that override, and the core principles of unregistered title including title deeds, land charges and the doctrine of notice. Co-ownership: joint tenancy and tenancy in common at law and in equity, survivorship, severance, and sections 14 and 15 of the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996. Proprietary rights: easements and their creation, freehold covenants and the passing of benefit and burden, and mortgages including priority, the lender's powers and duties and protection of mortgagors. Leases: lease against licence, privity of contract and estate, leasehold covenants, alienation covenants, remedies including forfeiture, and termination.

Trusts. Creation of express trusts, the three certainties, fixed and discretionary trusts, formalities and constitution, and the exceptions to the rule that equity will not assist a volunteer, including Re Rose, Strong v Bird and Choithram v Pagarani. Beneficial entitlement, vested and contingent interests and the rule in Saunders v Vautier. Charitable trusts against non-charitable purpose trusts. Automatic and presumed resulting trusts. Trusts of the family home, common intention constructive trusts and proprietary estoppel. Liability of strangers through knowing receipt and dishonest assistance. The fiduciary relationship and the no-profit and no-conflict duties. Trustees: appointment, removal and retirement, the duty of care, the duty to invest, and statutory powers of maintenance and advancement. Breach of trust, measure of liability, protection and limitation. Equitable remedies and tracing.

Criminal Liability. The core principles of criminal liability applied to a specified list of offences: common assault and battery, sections 47, 20 and 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, theft, robbery, burglary and aggravated burglary under sections 1, 8, 9 and 10 of the Theft Act 1968, simple and aggravated criminal damage and arson, murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter by unlawful act and by gross negligence, and fraud by false representation, by abuse of position and by failing to disclose. Actus reus and mens rea. General defences of intoxication and self-defence, partial defences of loss of control and diminished responsibility, principals and accomplices, and attempt.

Criminal Practice. Advising clients, including vulnerable clients, at the police station: the right to legal advice, the right to have someone informed, detention time limits under PACE 1984 Code C, identification procedures under Code D, the right to silence and adverse inferences, and the conduct of a lawful interview including the role of the appropriate adult. Then the litigation: bail and the exceptions to the right to bail, first hearings in the magistrates' court, plea before venue, allocation between the magistrates' court and the Crown Court, case management and the Plea and Trial Preparation Hearing, and disclosure. Evidence: burden and standard of proof, visual identification and the Turnbull guidance, inferences from silence under sections 34 to 38 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, hearsay, confessions and sections 76 and 78 of PACE 1984, bad character and the gateways under sections 100 and 101 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Trial procedure, competence and compellability, special measures and the solicitor's duty to the court. Sentencing, guidelines, seriousness, concurrent and consecutive sentences, custodial and suspended sentences and community orders, and Newton hearings. Appeals from the magistrates' court and from the Crown Court. Youth court procedure, allocation, grave crimes and youth sentencing.

The thirteen SQE1 subjects by paper

This is the whole examinable scope in one view. Nothing appears on both papers, so a subject sits on one paper or the other and you can plan your revision around the two dates rather than around one undifferentiated pile.

How many questions are in SQE1, and how the time works

SQE1 is 360 single best answer questions in total. FLK1 is 180 of them and FLK2 is 180.

Each paper is split into two sessions of 90 questions, and each session is 153 minutes. That is four sessions across the two papers, and it works out at 1 minute 42 seconds per question with nothing left over for the ones you want to think about. The pacing problem is real and it is the part candidates most often underestimate, because the questions are not short. A single best answer question is a client scenario, sometimes a substantial one, followed by five options.

Single best answer means what it says. More than one option can be defensible. You are asked for the best one. There is no negative marking, so an unanswered question and a wrong answer score the same, which makes leaving a blank straightforwardly irrational.

• 360 questions in total, 180 on FLK1 and 180 on FLK2
• Two sessions per paper, 90 questions each
• 153 minutes per session, roughly 1 minute 42 seconds a question
• Five options per question, one best answer
• No negative marking, so never leave a question blank
• The two papers are sat on separate days within the same assessment window

Where ethics sits in the specification

Ethics and professional conduct has no subject of its own and no dedicated question count. It is examined pervasively, which means an ethics or conduct point can be embedded in a question about any subject on either paper.

That design catches people out in a specific way. If you revise conduct as a topic, you learn it as a list of rules in isolation, and then it appears inside a property transaction or a criminal case where the difficulty is noticing that a conduct issue has arisen at all. The exam is testing recognition as much as recall.

So the useful drill is not to revise ethics separately. It is to ask, on every practice question in every subject, whether there is a conduct point hiding in the facts. Most of the time there is not. The habit is what matters.

• Ethics is not a fourteenth subject and has no separate paper or section
• A conduct point can appear inside a question on any of the thirteen subjects
• The skill being tested is spotting the issue in the facts, not reciting the rule
• Solicitors Accounts is its own FLK2 subject, and is separate from pervasive ethics

Why there is no published subject weighting

There is no official percentage weighting per subject, and anyone who gives you one is estimating. The SRA publishes the subject list and the scope of each subject. It does not publish how many of the 180 questions on a paper go to each area.

You can infer something from the specification itself. The depth of detail is uneven, and a subject with four pages of listed topics plainly needs more of your time than one with half a page. But an inference from depth of coverage is not a weighting, and it should not be used the way a weighting would be, which is to write off a subject as low value.

The practical consequence is that you cannot safely skip anything. On a paper of 180 questions across six or seven subjects, even the smallest area is likely to be worth more marks than the margin most people pass by. Treat coverage as compulsory and let your time allocation follow your accuracy, not a guessed percentage.

• The SRA publishes the scope of each subject, not a mark share
• Depth of coverage in the specification is a hint, not a weighting
• No subject is small enough to be safely dropped on a 180 question paper
• Let your weakest topics take your time, not a guessed percentage table

SQE1 and SQE2: how the two stages differ

SQE1 and SQE2 test different things and look nothing alike. SQE1 is knowledge, assessed by multiple choice. SQE2 is skill, assessed by making you do the work.

SQE1 is the specification described on this page: thirteen subjects, 360 single best answer questions, four sessions across two papers. SQE2 assesses practical legal skills such as drafting, writing, client interviewing, advocacy, legal analysis and legal research, across a set of stations covering the main practice areas.

You sit them in order, and SQE1 must be passed before SQE2, with a narrow set of exemptions governed by the SRA. Because SQE2 assumes the knowledge from SQE1 and applies it, most people find that solid SQE1 preparation is not wasted, but the two need different practice: banks of questions for the first, and rehearsed drafting and speaking for the second.

• SQE1 tests functioning legal knowledge, SQE2 tests practical legal skills
• SQE1 is 360 multiple choice questions, SQE2 is written and oral skills stations
• SQE1 comes first and must be passed before you sit SQE2
• SQE2 assumes SQE1 knowledge, so the content overlaps but the practice does not

How to actually use the specification

Print it once and use it as a checklist rather than a reading list. Each bullet in the specification is a thing that can be asked, which makes it the only honest map of your own coverage.

The method that works is to run it subject by subject and mark every bullet with what you would score on it right now, then let the marks decide the order of your revision. It is slow the first time and it is worth it, because the alternative is revising the material you enjoy and finding out on results day which parts you avoided.

One caution. The specification defines scope, not the law itself, and the examinable law is fixed to a cut-off before your sitting rather than being whatever is current on the day. If you are relying on a textbook or a set of notes, check the date on them. Checked 9 September 2026.

• The SQE1 exam format, the sessions, the timings and how single best answer marking works
• Free SQE1 practice questions, real format questions with full explanations
• What is the SQE, the two stages and the four requirements to qualify
• SQE1 books and materials, what is worth buying and what is free