The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), in their response to the Legal Services Board’s (LSB) consultation on enhancing consumer protection, reducing regulatory restrictions, called for a “fundamental review of the basis of the regulation of legal services in England and Wales”.
The SRA believe that all legal services should be regulated and that the LSB’s proposal of review on an activity by activity basis for current reserved legal activities will not deal with the important problems that consumers face with the current systems.
The SRA say that these problems include:
- Lack of information for consumers as to which services are regulated and which are not.
- Lack of both consumer protection and redress.
- Increased cost of regulation.
The SRA believe that the need for regulation is in the public interest and also promotes and protects consumers’ interests.
Chief Executive of the SRA, Antony Townsend, commented:
"We welcome the Legal Services Board’s consultation paper as an important opening contribution to the debate. We are keen to contribute to and take the debate forward.
We believe the starting point for this review should be that all legal services should be regulated in the public interest and in the interests of consumers, rather than starting from a more narrowly based review of individual activities as proposed by the LSB. However, we accept that there is a case in the short term for the extension of reserved legal activities to specific activities such as will writing, while a wider review is undertaken.
In order to help progress this debate we will shortly be organising a conference for those with an interest in this issue to come together and discuss the issues raised.”
You can read the full SRA response here.
Today’s Conveyancer, bringing you the latest conveyancing news and updates.
