Tuesday, 05 December 2017
LSB launches consultation on its 2018-2021
strategic plan and 2018/19 business plan
The Legal Services Board (LSB) launches today a consultation on its draft 2018-21 strategic plan and draft 2018/19 business plan.
Legal Services Board interim Chair, Dr Helen Philipps, said:
“The Legal Services Board is currently in the last year of its existing strategic cycle.
While there have been improvements in legal services regulation over the last three years our 2016 market evaluation and the Competition and Markets Authority’s recent market study have demonstrated that there is more to do to make the legal services market work for consumers and the public more widely.
We have a vision of legal services that everyone can access and trust and in pursuit of this, we are proposing to focus on three objectives for the next strategic cycle:
Our draft business plan sets out the work that we will pursue under each objective during the first year of the new strategic cycle. This includes implementing our new approach to assessing regulatory performance, through which we will encourage the regulators to be well-led organisations that strive to demonstrate good governance.
Effective collaboration with stakeholders in the legal sector will be key to maximising our impact and improving outcomes for consumers and the public. Through this public consultation we would like to hear from anyone with an interest in legal services and the wider legal services community about what we have got right, what could be improved and where they see scope for joint working.”
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 strategic plan 2019-21 and business plan 2018/19 consultation can be found here..
2. The LSB’s proposed indicative budget for 2018/19 is £3.798m. This continues a downward trajectory and represents a further £50k reduction from 2017/18 and a reduction of almost 23% since 2010/11.
3. The closing date for the consultation is Monday 19 February 2018.
4. In an effort to facilitate interested parties contribute to this consultation a workshop will be arranged in the second half of January 2018. For further information or should you wish to attend please email lsbevents@legalservicesboard.org.uk.
5. 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.
6. 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 General Council of the Bar, 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 and the Association of Costs Lawyers. They have subsequently being joined as an approved regulator by 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.
7. As at 1 April 2017, the legal profession in England and Wales comprised 148,690 solicitors, 15,281 barristers, 6,809 chartered legal executives and 5,958 other individuals operating in other areas of the legal profession such as conveyancing. The UK legal sector turnover was £31 billion per annum (2016) which is up 19% in cash terms since 2012. For more information see here.