UK law firms are not fully utilising some the benefits that can be leveraged through home-based workers, it has been suggested.

A survey carried out by consultancy firm Portus discovered that while 71 per cent of law firms around the country consider flexible working practices to be "important or "very important" to their future success, few are making relevant operational changes.

Indeed, the majority of companies that took part in the recent poll indicated that only between one and ten per cent of their workforce operates under flexible arrangements, reports Clickdocs.

Chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors Susha Chandrasekhar commented: "Howard Taylor, senior legal counsel at Shell, has put it on record that he is happy to work with firms operating flexibly.

"He does so himself and, as long as the firm in question tells him how they are going to manage the project, he’ll go along with it – with flexibility on both sides because it’s a two-way street."

The UK’s justice minister Harriet Harman recently told the BBC that flexible working arrangements should be improved to help Britons establish a better work-life balance.