Legal Services Board’s annual report demonstrates drive and progress to reshape legal services

Today, the Legal Services Board (LSB) published its annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022. It describes the work completed and the LSB’s impact in delivering the first year of the Reshaping Legal Services strategy for the sector, published in March 2021.

Some key projects and activities during the year included:

• Developing a statement of policy on empowering consumers. It sets clear expectations for regulators to improve consumer information, promote rights, and drive choice in the legal services market. It ensures regulators take action to make lawyers and law firms be clearer about the price and quality of their services. This will make it easier for people to shop around and compare costs and help address unmet legal need.
• Carrying out research into the legal needs of small businesses. Small businesses continue to face a significant access to justice gap. They are not empowered to obtain legal services that meet their needs. We are calling for a small business legal support strategy to help small businesses recognise their legal needs and access legal services when needed.
• Conducting reviews of the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Faculty Office (FO) against the Well-led standard of the regulatory performance framework. The BSB and FO have developed action plans to address the findings. We are monitoring their progress through our regulatory performance work. Both reviews had learning for the other regulators, and we shared the reports.
• Developing a cross-sector statement of principles to tackle counter-inclusive practices in the profession, such as bullying, discrimination and harassment. It also includes a lack of diversity in recruitment and promotion panels, limitations on flexible working, and unfair work allocation processes. There will now be a consistent approach to dealing with unprofessional misconduct, supporting efforts to create a diverse and thriving profession.
• Completing a wholesale review of our statutory decisions processes, including our Rules for applications to alter regulatory arrangements. They now provide a greater focus on the regulatory objectives and ensure regulators consider the impact of changes on regulated persons, consumers, and stakeholders. There is also a specific emphasis on diversity and inclusion.

Dr Helen Phillips, Chair of the LSB, said:

“Our annual report demonstrates our absolute resolve to tackle the challenges facing the legal services market. Our work during the last year will help reduce unmet legal need and drive up regulatory standards.

“Improving diversity and inclusion has been a significant focus and will continue to be. We are committed to supporting a thriving profession that reflects the society it serves. We will build on our work to stamp out behaviours that work against inclusive cultures and ensure high standards of professional ethics within a sector that puts the public first.

“As we push forward with delivering our ambition, we’ll build momentum by collaborating with more people across the sector to ensure fairer outcomes, stronger confidence and better services.’

Matthew Hill, Chief Executive of the Legal Services Board, said:

“While we are not funded by the taxpayer, we still have a great responsibility to exercise first-rate stewardship of the funds raised by the statutory levy on regulators. I am delighted that this report, with its unqualified accounts and the highest level of audit assurance in every area examined, demonstrates the great care the LSB takes in managing what is at the end of the day other people’s money.”

Kindly shared by Legal Service Board