The Legal Services Board (LSB) has today published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2025/26, taking stock of a year of decisive enforcement action and progress towards a more intelligence-led, risk-based, and targeted approach to oversight regulation.
The report highlights our formal enforcement action against the Solicitors Regulation Authority following the independent reviews into Axiom Ince and SSB Group, alongside voluntary undertakings agreed with the Bar Standards Board to improve regulatory performance.
It outlines our response to the Mazur judgments, bringing regulators together to improve the clarity and consistency of guidance on the conduct of litigation, and continuing work to strengthen consumer protection and facilitating economic growth, including through harnessing the potential of artificial intelligence to make legal services more accessible.
The report also marks significant progress in our programme to modernise oversight regulation. During the year, we developed a new intelligence-led, risk-based approach that will be implemented during 2026/27, enabling greater focus on areas of highest risk while reducing unnecessary burdens where regulators are performing well.
Richard Orpin, Chief Executive, said:
“This has been a year of heightened activity and impact for the LSB. Through our regulatory oversight activity, we have taken action to protect consumers, support the rule of law, and enable further innovation and growth of the sector.
“As the sector continues to evolve, the need for effective regulation – and independent oversight to ensure that effectiveness – has never been greater.”
Looking ahead, the LSB will remain focused on delivering robust, proportionate and targeted oversight regulation through 2026/27 to ensure consumers are protected and the sector can thrive. We will also move forward with our plans to develop a new, more focussed three-year strategy for 2027-30, as announced in Monisha Shah’s latest Chair’s blog.