Outsourcing key to clearing OLC backlog, says CLC

The Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC) has told the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) that its heavy focus on recruiting permanent staff will not resolve its current backlog, that outsourcing is key, and that it has misinterpreted historic legal advice that says its work can only be carried out by employed staff.

Responding to the OLC’s consultation on its business plan for 2022-23, the CLC states:

“The OLC says that past legal advice indicates that work can only be carried out by employed staff, not contractors or agency staff. While the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA) does refer to the ‘appointment of staff’ in Schedule 15, a later section of the Schedule also states:

Arrangements for assistance

18(1) The OLC may make arrangements with such persons as it considers appropriate for assistance to be provided to it or to an ombudsman.

(2) Arrangements may include the paying of fees to such persons.

(3) The persons with whom the OLC may make arrangements include approved regulators; and the arrangements it may make include arrangements for assistance to be provided to an ombudsman in relation to the investigation and consideration of a complaint.

This provision would seem to allow the outsourcing of complaints investigations. We strongly urge the OLC to review its position that legislative change is needed to enable outsourcing. We are very concerned that the improvement plan places over-reliance on achieving legislative change and locks in the current level of performance. The LSA provision above could mean that immediate and fixed-term outsourcing arrangements could be used to reduce the backlog and potentially to develop and test new, more efficient approaches to complaints handling. The OLC and LSB should approach this issue with more creativity on the basis that improving customer service and consumer confidence in the redress arrangements is a very important aspect of a well-functioning legal services market.”

While the CLC did recognise some improvements by the body, namely the measures taken to secure ‘early resolution’ of some cases, and the greater level of dialogue with stakeholders, it said improvements could still be made in that area and remains concerned about the lack of clarity and long-term planning showed by the OLC:

“…we are disappointed that the proposals set out in the business plan for next year – and beyond – do not show clearly whether or when the OLC will be resolving complaints quickly and in a cost-effective manner. It is not clear what the target performance would be for an acceptable, efficient and cost-effective service or how long the OLC thinks it needs to achieve that. Going forward the plan seems to be proposing that the backlog might reduce to 2985 by March 2024, or in other words that OLC intends to roughly halve the backlog in a further two years.  The CLC does not consider that an acceptable pace of progress to achieve an efficient and cost-effective service.” 

Sheila Kumar, CEO of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, says:

“All regulators should be concerned by the ongoing resolution delays faced by consumers, with some complainants waiting for more than 1000 days for a decision after their case has been accepted for investigation and the OLC taking, on average, 24 days to respond to general email enquiries.”  

The full consultation response can be viewed here.

Kindly shared by Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC)

Main photo courtesy of Pixabay