The Board met in person on 21 March 2023, my final full meeting as Chair of the Legal Services Board.
Delivering our strategic vision: LSB business plan 2023/24
Every year we consult publicly on our draft business plan and budget. We reviewed contributions from stakeholders and agreed the LSB’s business plan and budget for 2023/24. Our plan and resources are focused on how we can use regulation to deliver legal services that better meet the needs of society in pursuit of the regulatory objectives in the Legal Services Act.
We will progress several areas of policy development, including equality, diversity and inclusion, professional ethics and the rule of law, disciplinary and enforcement processes, and – in response to consultation feedback – a better understanding of the role of regulation in improving access to the publicly-funded justice system.
Among our new workstreams, we will build upon the research we commissioned last year on consumer vulnerability, considering how inclusive design principles could be applied in legal services. These are about putting people first and considering the full range of consumer diversity, including ability, gender, age, and other forms of difference.
To deliver this business plan, we agreed on a budget of £4.679m, which, adjusted for inflation, equates to a reduction of around 1% compared to last year. We are confident, however, that we can deliver our ambitious agenda if we continue to use our resources effectively and efficiently.
Measuring sector progress against the Reshaping Legal Services strategy
We discussed the fourth data digest, focusing on proposed key indicators for each of the challenges identified in the sector-wide strategy to reshape legal services. They were selected from the 65+ indicators that we monitor. We discussed how this would inform our planned work on market surveillance and agreed it would be useful to collaborate with other stakeholders to develop the key indicators.
Legal Services Consumer Panel workplan 2023/24
The Board welcomed Sarah Chambers, Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP), and discussed and endorsed the LSCP’s workplan for 2023/24. The Board welcomed the LSCP’s focus on consumer-focused regulation and discussed how the LSCP might contribute its research and advice in this area to support performance monitoring of the regulators under our performance framework. We also discussed the need for regulators to meet the outcomes in our consumer empowerment statement of policy, published in 2022, including ensuring consumers have access to information about quality and price so they can access high-quality and affordable legal services. We look forward to collaborating on these important issues.
OLC final budget 2023/24
Part of our statutory role is to approve the annual budget of the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). For our consideration of the application, we welcomed Elisabeth Davies and Paul McFadden (the Chair of the OLC and Chief Executive of LeO). We scrutinised and approved the OLC’s final budget proposals for 2023/24, having discussed a draft budget and business plan in November 2022.
We welcomed how the proposals responded to concerns we had raised and feedback from stakeholders during the consultation and recognised that, while falling short of its business plan targets in 2022/23, LeO had nonetheless achieved a sustained overall performance improvement for which it should be congratulated. It will be important to maintain this momentum in 2023/24.
Looking ahead, we welcomed the OLC’s development of a new three-year strategy, which will focus on improving its insight and impact work to raise standards in the legal services sector. The Board agreed that this was an important role for LeO in supporting public trust and confidence in the legal profession. It encouraged the OLC to consider pragmatic solutions for providing meaningful transparency of its decisions and the lessons to be learned from complaint outcomes.
Monitoring developments in the unregulated sector
We discussed the first principles analysis of the existing reserved legal activities (RLAs) set out in the Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act), which considered the risk-based justification for the RLAs. This analysis followed LSB research in 2022 to better understand the unregulated legal services sector and our conclusion that this research did not warrant immediate changes to the RLAs. We agreed that the analysis confirmed that, for the time being, we should not progress a review into how the RLAs are configured. However, we agreed on the need to follow-up work to ensure that the regulatory arrangements of the relevant regulators are sufficiently clear and effective in relation to reserved instrument activities and probate activities (two of the RLAs).
The LSB will continue to monitor developments in the unregulated sector and the exercise of the RLAs. Work undertaken over the last year will aid the Board in any future consideration of a full-scale review of the scope of regulation or any review of the entirety of the Act.
My reflections as Chair
My final term of office ends on 31 March 2023. I was very grateful for the kind words and reflections of Board members and executive colleagues. I am very proud to have led such a dynamic and forward-thinking organisation committed to advancing positive change.
We have developed a strategy focused on ensuring regulation plays its part in helping people identify when they have a legal problem and then find the right help to suit them at the right price. I am pleased that so many stakeholders contributed evidence, information, and insights to support the development of the Reshaping Legal Services strategy. Even more gratifying, the sector has widely endorsed and welcomed it.
Regulation enables lawyers to carry out their important role in society. It also protects consumers and promotes the public interest. There cannot be a a one size fits all approach to regulation. Each of the legal professions is different, and we have become a proportionate, modern, risk-based oversight regulator. We are demanding regarding the outcomes we want to achieve but very permissive in how regulators do that, which is reflected in our approach to assessing regulatory performance and our approach more broadly.
Price transparency improvements have made it easier for people to shop around for legal services and exercise choice. Our statutory statement of policy on empowering consumers will deliver further improvements. It sets clear expectations for regulators to provide better consumer information, promote rights, and drive choice. Our policy statement on ongoing competence will help build public trust and confidence in the sector.
Of course, several important areas still need to be progressed and require regulators and all those who work in the sector to work collaboratively to drive these forward. I hope the sector and regulators continue to ensure regulation plays the fullest role possible in delivering change for people needing legal services.
I want to thank the many colleagues across the sector who provided such stimulating discussion and support over my time as Chair. I appreciate that, as a regulator, we may not always agree with everyone.
Alan Kershaw will take up his role as the next Chair of the Legal Services Board on 1 April 2023. I wish him, the Board, the executive, and all our stakeholders every success with advancing workstreams to deliver fairer outcomes, stronger confidence, and better services for consumers.
We concluded the meeting by thanking Jemima Coleman for her hard work and commitment over the last seven years as a non-lay (solicitor) member of the LSB Board. Jemima’s second term ends in mid-April.
The next Board meeting will be on 25 April 2023.