LSB to make a recommendation for Order under S.80 of Legal Services Act

11 May 2011

The LSB has today published its decision document and order that it will recommend to the Lord Chancellor should be made under section 80 of the Legal Services Act 2007 about the appeal mechanism for decisions of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) if it is designated as a Licensing Authority. This follows the consultation Alternative business structures: appeal arrangements which ran from 23 August 2010 to 12 November 2010 and our decision, announced yesterday, to recommend to the Lord Chancellor that the CLC should be designated as a Licensing Authority.

Some of the decisions that Licensing Authorities make will be subject to a right of appeal to an independent body. For example, a decision to impose a specific licence condition, or to disqualify a person from working in an ABS, or to impose a financial penalty. The decision document released today sets out the LSB’s decision to recommend to the Lord Chancellor that he makes an order providing that the First-Tier Tribunal (which is part of the unified tribunal structure administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service) is the body to which appeals against decisions made by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) can be made.

The draft Order will now be recommended to the Lord Chancellor. We are also publishing an impact assessment.

The draft Order differs materially from the version that was published in the consultation document on 23 August 2010. A statement has therefore been published setting out the details of the material changes made and the reasons for these changes.