Tuesday, 11 November 2014
Have you had your say on the cost of legal services regulation?
The Legal Services Board (LSB) cost of regulation survey today has just passed its half-way point. Members of the legal profession have stepped up and are making their views known.
We have received over 600 completed responses and have already exceeded our minimum target of 100 volunteers from the profession for the more in depth research that is to follow in the new year.
This all indicates the very strong desire of practitioners to engage and tell us their first hand experience of regulation.
However, we need more!
The legal profession needs to continue to tell us what it thinks the costs of regulation are. The more feedback received, the more the survey will be an accurate reflection of what the real costs of legal services regulation are and the more targeted the follow up research can be.
Legal Services Chief Executive, Chris Kenny, said:
“I would strongly encourage members of the profession to have a look at the survey and provide their feedback. The average time taken to complete the survey is 20-25 minutes. Hopefully practitioners agree that is not too long to spend to make their views known on such an important subject.
Telling us what your experiences are will help us, help you and help the regulators deal with unnecessary and unhelpful regulation.
If you have started the survey and have yet to finish it please take a few minutes to do so. If you haven’t had an opportunity please try and find the time. The results of this survey could have a lasting impact on legal services regulation but that can only happen if the profession gets involved."
The cost of regulation survey can be accessed here. A word version of the survey can be found here.
ENDS
For further information, please contact our LSB Communications Manager Vincent McGovern or by calling 020 7271 0068
Notes for editors:
- The cost of regulation survey finishes on Friday 28 November.
- This survey is the first part of an investigation that seeks the views of the profession and law firms on costs. It will be followed in due course by an in-depth assessment which will seek to quantify the costs of complying with legal services regulation.
- Figures provided are up-to-date as of 11 November 2014.
- Background information on why we are undertaking this research can be found here.
- The Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act) created the LSB as a new regulator with responsibility for overseeing the regulation of legal services in England and Wales. The new regulatory regime became active on 1 January 2010.
- The LSB oversees nine approved regulators, which in turn regulate individual legal practitioners. The approved regulators, designated under Part 1 of Schedule 4 of the 2007 Act, are the Law Society, the Bar Council, the Master of the Faculties, the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, the Association of Costs Lawyers and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
In addition, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants are listed as approved regulators in relation only to reserved probate activities.
- As at 1 April 2014, the legal profession comprised 138,243 solicitors, 326 alternative business structures, 15,279 barristers, 7,927 chartered legal executives and 5,404 other individuals operating in other areas of the legal profession such as conveyancing. The sector was valued at £29.2 billion in 2013 (total turnover).