Legal regulators to face greater scrutiny in 2024
updated on 02 January 2024
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The Legal Services Board (LSB) has announced plans to “step up” its oversight of legal regulators and implement formal action against those it deems to be underperforming.
The increased scrutiny over legal regulators, such as the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority (SRA), comes after the lawyers who fund these regulators told the LSB they want to see greater regulatory insight.
Regulatory performance came under scrutiny last year when national firm Axiom Ince was found to have a £66 million hole in its client account.
The LSB has pledged to “step up” its oversight and monitoring of legal regulators, which in turn will allow it to “respond more promptly and dynamically to issues in the public interest and protect and promote regulatory objectives effectively”.
A report on legal regulators is expected to be released later this month and will detail several areas for improvement, including the regulators leadership and approaches to regulation standards.
However, these changes require increased funding which the LSB has suggested will only be possible through a 14% increase in the organisation’s annual budget, rising to £5.33 million. This will mean an additional £3.40 charge to the practising fees paid by each regulated lawyer.
Final decisions relating to this increase will be made early this year, but the LSB has said this proposed budget rise “reflects the resources we need to meet the scale of the challenges facing the legal sector”.
