Tuesday, 4 April 2017
LSB publishes Business Plan for 2017/18
The Legal Services Board (LSB) today publishes its Business Plan for 2017/18. This plan represents the final year of the three year strategy announced in 2015 and sets out the work the LSB will do to deliver its strategic outcomes.
Alongside essential statutory responsibilities, the emphasis of the LSB in 2017/18, will be on the continued promotion of access to legal services, pursuing greater transparency and data collection, understanding the issues relating to standards of education and training, and maintaining our focus on the need for independence of regulation from representative interests.
The LSB believes that change needs to continue if benefits are to be delivered to business and consumers alike.
Commenting on the appointment, Neil Buckley, LSB Chief Executive said:
“The LSB has a vital role to play in maintaining trust and confidence in the legal services market of England and Wales.
Our Business Plan for 2017/18 sets out what we will do to drive change in the areas where regulation can make the most difference for consumers and legal services providers. It is also a year in which we will evaluate the progress that still needs to be made as we begin to consider and engage broadly with stakeholders on our next three year strategy (2018/21).
Our Plan also responds to the recommendations made by the Competition and Market Authority legal services market study, issued in December 2016, which reflected our own analysis of the sector.
We will complete our work with a budget for 2017/18 that is £150k reduced from our budget in 2016/17. This will bring our cost to each regulated legal professional to just under £19 (which is a 44% reduction from when the LSB first started operating).”
ENDS
For further information, please contact the LSB’s Communications Manager, Vincent McGovern (020 7271 0068).
Notes for editors:
- The 2017/18 Business Plan can be found here.
- Information about the consultation that preceded the publication of this Business Plan can be found here.
- Responses to the consultation can be found here.
- The consultation response document 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 Chartered 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 turnover was £32 billion per annum (2015) which is up 23% in cash terms since 2012. For more information see here.