The Legal Services Board (LSB) has launched a consultation on a draft statutory statement of policy on the outcomes regulators should pursue to ensure legal professionals have the necessary and up-to-date skills, knowledge, attributes and behaviours to provide good quality legal services.
The draft statement, which follows extensive independent research and cross-sector engagement, is designed to be risk-based, outcome-focused and flexible for the nine legal regulators to apply across their regulated communities. It will ensure the public and consumers can have confidence that legal practitioners remain competent throughout their careers.
The theme of public trust in legal services is central to the LSB’s sector-wide strategy, Reshaping Legal Services, which aims to provide fairer outcomes, stronger confidence and better services. Ensuring lawyers’ competence is key to protecting the interests of consumers and driving greater trust in the legal system.
LSB research shows a gap between what the public expects when it comes to ensuring lawyers’ competence and what checks are currently in place. In practice, there are very few routine or formal measures to ensure ongoing competence after a lawyer qualifies. 95% of people surveyed earlier this year believed lawyers should have to demonstrate they remain competent throughout their careers. Almost nine in ten people (87%) thought legal services regulators should do more to reduce the risk of a lack of competence undermining public trust in the legal system.
Research also shows that the current approach is out of step compared with other professions, where there is a greater focus on assessing and understanding levels of competence.
The draft statement sets out the outcomes regulators will be expected to deliver:
- Set the standards of competence that those they regulate should have at the point of authorisation and throughout their careers.
- Regularly assess and understand the levels of competence within the profession(s) they regulate, and identify areas where competence may need to be improved.
- Make appropriate interventions to ensure standards of competence are maintained across the profession(s) they regulate.
- Take suitable remedial action when standards of competence are not met by individual authorised persons.
LSB Chair Dr Helen Phillips said,
“Lawyers help to keep our society safe, protect our liberty and enforce our rights. Consumers should be able to trust in the competence of legal service providers, not just when they qualify but throughout their careers. The status quo is not enough to protect the public interest.
“We want to support regulators to adopt a proportionate and risk-based approach, and develop an approach that is fit for purpose for the professions they regulate, while ensuring a minimum standard of ongoing competence requirements across the sector.”
The consultation follows LSB research on consumer attitudes, the LSB’s call for evidence in 2020 and a review of competence frameworks in other countries commissioned by the LSB from Hook Tangaza.
The consultation is open for 12 weeks and closes on 7 March 2022.