The Board met in person on 6 June 2023 for my second meeting as Chair of the Legal Services Board (LSB). We welcomed newly appointed Board Members Kate Briscoe and Clare Brown and looked forward to them bringing their extensive experience to bear as we work to ensure legal services better meet the needs of consumers and the public.
Listening to stakeholders to help shape our work
In the weeks leading up to the meeting, I continued to meet a wide range of stakeholders from across the sector who share our vision. In May, Board Member Catherine Brown, LSB CEO Matthew Hill, Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel Sarah Chambers and I were joined by LSB colleagues on a visit to NLS Legal in Nottingham, which provides legal services to those who cannot afford or otherwise access them. Nottingham Law School students assist their qualified and experienced lawyers. We also held an event where we heard from stakeholders in the East Midlands about the opportunities and risks facing the sector and considered how collaboration could address them.
It was great to meet a diverse range of people in Nottingham and to hear their perspectives firsthand. It will shape our work and thinking. We will continue travelling to different parts of England and Wales to meet people who have a role in achieving our shared mission. Indeed, we are looking forward to holding a Board meeting in Cardiff in September, when we will also meet Welsh stakeholders and hold a reception at the Senedd.
In the spirit of hearing different voices from across the sector, I was delighted to welcome Dr Louise Ashley, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and the author of ‘Highly Discriminating: Why the City isn’t Fair and Diversity Doesn’t Work’ to our Board meeting to discuss equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). We had a wide-ranging and provocative discussion from which I took away a number of important themes. They included the likely need for profound change to business models if meaningful progress on EDI is to be sustained, the tension between the inherently ‘exclusive’ nature of professions of any kind and the inclusivity we are trying to promote, and the risk of EDI being used as a means of ‘reputation laundering’ rather than driving real change.
This resonated with the findings of our qualitative study on the experiences of 30 legal professionals from underrepresented groups trying to get into, feel part of, and succeed in the legal profession. Participants in that study spoke, for example, of the impact that long working hours in pursuit of the billable hour can have on inclusion.
The Board is considering the regulatory interventions required to drive meaningful change on EDI, and we will consult later in the year. We look forward to continuing the discussion with others across the sector, including at our EDI event with Clifford Chance on 21 June 2023.
Learning from complaints and feedback to improve services
Part of the LSB’s role is to ensure regulation protects consumers from harm and make sure redress is available if things go wrong. When someone is dissatisfied with a legal services provider, they can complain directly to the provider. This is called a ‘first-tier complaint’, and we are revising our existing requirements and guidance to improve first-tier complaints handling, and in the light of evidence we see that in some places it could work a great deal better than it does at present.
We believe that a positive approach to complaints and feedback, using them as an opportunity for reflection and development, will contribute to an overall rise in standards across the sector. A useful by-product would be a measurable reduction in the number of complaints that go to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), by which stage they have become ‘second-tier complaints’. Almost always, the quickest, fairest and most satisfactory way to handle a complaint is as close as possible to where the issue originally arose – a process which increases public trust and confidence.
The Board discussed the findings from our consumer research that identifies what a good redress system looks like for the public. We will publish this soon. We considered that the principles of accessibility, continuous learning and ease of use identified in the research were of particular importance. We also discussed the benefits to providers, LeO and users of legal services of a system that proactively encourages and facilitates feedback.
Draft revised requirements and guidance, and a statement of policy setting out our expectations of regulators, will be considered at our July meeting, ahead of public consultation. We are in no doubt that our work will have more impact if we collaborate with interested stakeholders around a set of common objectives. We will aim to deliver the best possible redress system, agreeing a shared public commitment in support of this work. We will write to stakeholders shortly to commence this in parallel with the planned consultation.
Technology for access
From comparison websites and video conferencing to AI and blockchain, technology has the potential to significantly widen access to legal services for the thousands of people and small businesses that need them each year. The Board discussed, and agreed to consult on, new draft statutory guidance that will promote the use of technology and innovation to improve access to justice. The consultation will be launched soon.
The draft guidance is focused on three key outcomes and sets out our expectations that regulators balance the benefits and risks, opportunities and costs of using technology and innovation in the interests of the public. It will also make clear the regulatory environment should be open to, and support, the introduction of new services to improve access for a broader range of users.
Our proposed outcomes-based approach is intended to be permissive and flexible, with regulators best placed to adopt the regulatory response that suits their regulated communities and the users of services. The Board aims to facilitate the future adaptation of regulatory approaches to encompass new innovations and emerging technologies over time, taking a proportionate approach to risks as well as opportunities.
We also believe it would be useful to encouarge regulators to share case studies of regulatory approaches related to the promotion of technology and innovation, both successful and unsuccessful. Collaboration is especially important in this complex and rapidly developing field.
Regulatory performance framework
The Board discussed the 2023 annual performance assessment process, which will start shortly. This year’s assessment will be the first done wholly under the revised performance framework. Regulators will be asked to provide assurance about how they are meeting the well-led and effective approach to regulation standards as well as on any other issues about the delivery of their regulatory work identified in our 2022 assessment.
Since the revised performance framework’s publication in October 2022 we have taken a number of important steps to engage with regulators about how this first assessment under the revised framework will work and how regulators can prepare for it, particularly with regard to providing assurance about how they meet the standards. The new assessment process will also provide an opportunity for regulators to comment on the substance of the LSB’s assessments, rather than simply fact-check them as in previous years.
The Board discussed ways to increase its engagement with regulators’ boards about LSB initiatives and improve collaboration amongst regulators in a number of ways where we believe real improvements can made.
Finally, we noted that Legal Services Consumer Panel’s report on consumer-focused regulation in legal services will shortly be published. We will add this to our regulatory performance framework sourcebook as a tool to help regulators improve their reporting of performance against the standards we require.
Our annual report for 2022/23
The Board heard from the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) chair, who confirmed that ARAC was happy to recommend the 2022/23 LSB Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23 to the Board for approval.
The Annual Report and Accounts have now been finalised in conjunction with the auditors (Deloitte and the National Audit Office). The Annual Report and Accounts have now been signed off, and the LSB will meet the prescribed timetable for laying and publishing them before the end of June.
The next Board meeting is on 18 July 2023.