Thursday, 29 September 2016
Encouraging a diverse legal profession
LSB consults on revised diversity guidance
The Legal Services Board (LSB) launches today a consultation on its diversity guidance for regulators, first issued in 2011, to make sure it remains up to date and relevant.
The changes proposed in this consultation are designed to give regulators the freedom to develop their own approaches to improving diversity throughout the profession.
Legal Services Board Chief Executive, Neil Buckley, said:
"The Legal Services Board is a passionate advocate for a diverse legal profession, reflecting its inclusion as a specific regulatory objective in the Legal Services Act. We promote diversity and social mobility through our regulatory framework and we expect the legal services regulators to do the same.
The revisions we propose in this consultation are focused on consolidating and building on the many excellent initiatives, both in the legal sector and further afield, that are delivering change.
We want regulators to continue to develop their work in this area and as such we have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to also develop and describe what regulators may do to demonstrate they are 'encouraging a diverse profession.
We believe there are examples of regulators doing good work to develop the case for diversity and inclusion, identifying the benefits in the changing profile of the profession.
We hope these proposals for updating our guidance will complement these initiatives and encourage them to continue to play their part in encouraging a diverse legal profession that reflects modern life and the society in which we live."
ENDS
For further information, please contact the LSB's Communications Manager, Vincent McGovern (020 7271 0068).
Notes for editors:
- The Legal Services Board's (LSB) consultation paper - Encouraging a diverse profession - can be found here.
- This paper seeks the views of all interested parties on proposals to update our 2011 section 162 guidance on diversity for regulators.
- Current guidance in this area is largely input focused, and gives the regulators the responsibility to collect data on the diversity profile of their own professions.
It encourages regulators to use a model questionnaire to ensure data is comparable across the entire profession as well as under each individual regulator. - Following work which the LSB carried out in 2015-16, we have concluded that some regulators have now moved past the 2011 guidance, while others have started collecting the data but have not used the information gathered to begin to inform policy decisions.
- The proposed changes, with a renewed focus on outcomes, will encourage regulators to take their work beyond data collection and allow more freedom in determining their own targeted approaches to encouraging the diversity of their respective professions, whilst also encouraging those who have not taken their work as far to continue to develop.
- This consultation closes on 2 December 2016.
- 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 2016, the legal profession in England and Wales comprised 145,059 solicitors, 15,288 barristers, 6,848 chartered legal executives and 5,697 other individuals operating in other areas of the legal profession such as conveyancing. The UK legal sector is valued at £32 billion per annum (2015) which is up 23% in cash terms since 2012. For more information see here.