The Legal Services Board (LSB) has today launched a consultation on its draft business plan and budget for 2024/25 focused on ensuring regulation continues to play its part in delivering a legal services market that better meets society’s needs.
The LSB’s plan includes strengthening its direct oversight of regulators’ performance, in response to stakeholder feedback. The LSB proposes to bolster its resilience to conduct regulatory reviews and investigations, as well as support the regulators in carrying out their duties and obligations under the Legal Services Act effectively. The LSB is also anticipating a significant call on resources in the next financial year in response to live events, namely to consider the delegation application from CILEX and to initiate an independent investigation into the events leading up to the SRA’s intervention into Axiom Ince.
In the last year, the LSB took action to ensure people and small businesses can access legal services they can trust by putting in place new rules on consumer empowerment and ongoing competence. The LSB is committed to ensuring the regulators deliver against the outcomes and deadlines it has set, and is stepping up its monitoring of regulators to ensure this.
The LSB also plans to boost its market surveillance and horizon scanning capability next year. This will help the LSB develop an enhanced understanding of consumer risk and detriment across the sector. This will support regulators in better identifying and anticipating issues in the market earlier and acting to ensure regulation protects consumers.
Other areas of focus for 2024/25 that are underway in 2023/24 include:
§ Ensuring regulation supports high standards of professional, ethical conduct across the sector, including supporting the new regulatory objective to promote the prevention and detection of economic crime
§ Collaborative work with regulators and others in the sector to address equality, diversity and inclusion gaps in the professions.
§ Ensuring regulators’ approaches to disciplinary and enforcement build public confidence and uphold standards.
§ Considering the role of regulation in ensuring safe uses of artificial intelligence (AI) that benefit legal services users as part of our work on technology and innovation.
§ Considering the role of regulation in improving access to justice.
§ Making the case for a strategic approach to consumer vulnerability and user design in legal services.
The draft business plan details the LSB’s budget for 2024/25. The oversight regulator is consulting on a budget of £5.329M. This represents a 13.9% increase on last year’s budget, or 7.2% when adjusted to inflation. This equates to under £28 per authorised person per year.
Matthew Hill, Chief Executive of the Legal Services Board, said:
“We have made good progress in delivering fairer outcomes, stronger confidence and better services via our oversight of the regulators, but further work is needed. Over the next year we want to strengthen our direct oversight of the regulators, ensure high standards and oversee the full implementation of polices that will drive change in the sector.”
“We recognise the challenges of the current economic climate, however we believe that it is vital that legal services users and the public can rely on high standards of regulation. Strengthening our oversight will mean we have better capability to see issues arising before they cause harm to consumers and the public.”
The LSB will be hosting an online consultation event on Wednesday 17 January, 10.30am-12pm, to discuss its draft business plan and budget in more detail. Book your place online.
The consultation closes at 5.00pm on Monday 12 February 2024.