Today, the Legal Services Board (LSB) launched a public consultation on a new approach to regulatory performance. The new system places greater emphasis on leadership, delivering the regulatory objectives and running effective operations.
While it sets out the LSB’s expectations more clearly than ever before, it also provides much greater freedom to regulators to decide how best to meet those expectations.
The proposed new framework is informed by several years’ experience of the existing one, feedback from the regulators, and research into other systems. It places responsibility on regulators and their boards to provide assurance that they are well-led and effective in their approach to and delivery of regulation for the public.
The proposed framework is intended to:
- Place sufficient emphasis on effective leadership, capability and capacity of regulators.
- Encourage regulators to take ownership of the regulatory objectives and hold them to account for putting these at the centre of what they do; and
- Be sufficiently flexible to account for developments in the legal services market and the policy environment.
Dr Helen Phillips, Chair of the Legal Services Board, said:
‘The public deserves the best that regulation has to offer. Our proposed new framework sets out a model of leadership in performance in the sector that is both demanding and permissive. Demanding in that it puts beyond doubt the regulator’s need to focus on the regulatory objectives – like access to justice, the rule of law and ensuring a strong, independent and diverse legal profession. And permissive in that it provides much greater autonomy to the regulators to decide how best to deliver against those objectives.
‘We look forward to receiving feedback on our proposed framework.’
The consultation on the revised regulatory performance assessment framework will be from 7 April 2022 to 1 July 2022.
See the Consultation Paper for more information