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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, 03 February 2016

LSB responds to the CMA legal services market study’s statement of scope

The Legal Services Board (LSB) publishes today its comments on the Competition and Market Authority's (CMA) 'Statement of Scope' for its recently announced legal services market study.

In its comments the LSB:

  • Welcomes the broad scope of the study, which includes small business consumers as well as individual consumers, and unregulated providers alongside regulated providers
  • states it would not wish a market investigation reference to be ruled out at this stage
  • signposts to LSB research and analysis of relevance to the study

Legal Services Board Chief Executive, Neil Buckley,said:

"This CMA legal services market study is a unique opportunity to see exactly how well the market is working for consumers and small businesses.

We anticipate that the dedicated focus and resources that the CMA can bring to investigating the issues will be a significant and effective complement to the LSB's own efforts to break down regulatory barriers and tackle unmet legal need.

We look forward to seeing how this market study develops."

ENDS

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

Notes for editors:

  1. The Legal Services Board's letter to the Competition & Market Authority's (CMA) regarding the statement of scope (plus annex) can be found here.

  2. The CMA legal services market study was announced on 13 January. For more information please see here.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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).