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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, 20 January 2016

LSB launches consultation on its draft 2016/17 business plan

The Legal Services Board (LSB) launches today a consultation on its draft business plan for 2016/17. This covers the second year of the LSB's three-year strategic plan which was adopted in March 2015.

Views are welcome from everyone with an interest in legal services and the wider legal services community.

Sir Michael Pitt, Chairman of the Legal Services Board said:

“The LSB's strategy for 2015-18 describes the three strategic outcomes we want to achieve (see notes to editors point 5) and this draft business plan outlines how we intend to move closer to attaining these necessary and vital outcomes in 2016/17.

We will continue to pursue vigorously a modern and efficient legal services sector - one that better meets the needs of consumers, citizens and practitioners. We will do this by ensuring we focus on areas where we can deliver most impact for competition, growth and innovation.

At the same time we will continue to focus on our statutory duties; key amongst which is our oversight of regulators as they make changes to their regulatory arrangements. We will do so whilst continuing to reduce our own costs and this year will cut our budget by a further £150,000 to £4,148k.

I welcome views and comments on what we plan to do from anyone with an interest in legal services.”

 

ENDS

For further information, please contact the LSB's Communications Manager, Vincent McGovern (020 7271 0068).

Notes for editors:

  1. Further information on the draft business plan 2016/17 consultation can be found here.

  2. The LSB proposes to reduce its budget by a further £150,000 in cash terms from £4,298k in 2015/16 to £4,148k in 2016/17. We also intend to reduce our operating costs by a further £450,000 by the end of this Parliament – a 15% reduction in total.

  3. The closing date for the consultation is Friday 19 February 2016.

  4. The LSB's draft strategic plan 2015-18 can be found here.

  5. The three strategic outcomes that the LSB is working towards are:
    - breaking down regulatory barriers to competition, growth and innovation
    - enabling the need for legal services to be met more effectively, and
    - ensuring that regulators and the Legal Ombudsman are operating effectively and that there is a shared understanding of the legal services market.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. As at 1 April 2015, the legal profession comprised 142,109 solicitors, 326 alternative business structures, 15,237 barristers, 7,848 chartered legal executives and 5,678 other individuals operating in other areas of the legal profession such as conveyancing. The sector is valued at £25.49 billion per annum (total turnover in 2010).