The Legal Services Board (LSB) has set out the actions it took in 2024/25 to enable legal services for the public, and says it will continue to address ‘the persistent and deeply concerning level of unmet legal need across England and Wales’.
In its annual report published this week, the regulator has reviewed its performance in ‘a rapidly changing landscape for legal services’ and set out five priority policy projects for 2025/26.
The report covers the year from April 2024 to the end of March this year, a period which includes the launch of formal action against the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) after £60 million of clients’ money was lost through the collapse of the law firm Axiom Ince.
An independent review by the LSB identified ‘serious regulatory shortcomings’ by the SRA in the matter, which the LSB says reinforces the need for better regulatory oversight and highlights gaps in protection for consumers it is working to close.
The LSB is also working with the Bar Standards Board (BSB) after a review found serious problems with how both regulators were performing. ‘These interventions demonstrate the LSB’s commitment to strong oversight that protects the public while enabling the legal services market to thrive’, the organisation said.
“A core part of our statutory remit is the oversight of regulators. Over the past year, we have continued to evolve and strengthen our approach through a refreshed framework for assessing their performance, the introduction of a new regulatory review team, and an enhanced horizon-scanning function.”
One of the LSB’s key themes of the last year has been improving access to justice. The focus on addressing the high number of people who are unable to access legal services will continue, the LSB says, with continued cross-sector collaboration to ensure regulatory efforts are targeted at improving access.
Interim chief executive Richard Orpin explained:
“We will consider what regulatory levers are available, as well as what innovative approaches might be possible – including the use of technology and artificial intelligence (AI), on which we provided guidance to the regulators.”
The report also highlights the LSB’s work in embedding and enabling professional ethics – with Orpin pointing out that ‘ethical conduct cannot be assumed’ but must be ‘actively enabled, supported and expected at all levels of the profession’.
Other achievements outlined in the report include providing up-to-date guidance on how regulators can improve legal services for consumers, bringing the sector together ‘to reflect on challenges and identify solutions’, making statutory decisions to ensure regulators act in the public interest, and sharing research and data ‘to help the sector understand the challenges it faces’.
Catherine Brown, interim chair of the LSB, commented:
“With enforcement action against a regulator underway, an annual performance assessment that revealed significant shortcomings elsewhere, and a broader societal focus on lawyers’ ethics, the LSB’s role has been shown to be more necessary than any other point in its history.”
The LSB’s business plan for the coming year sets out five priority policy projects: professional ethics; consumer protections; equality, diversity and inclusion; access to justice; discplinary and enforcement processes.
‘We also remain focused on improving our approach to regulatory oversight supporting strong performance where it exists and intervening decisively where it is lacking’, Orpin said.
He added:
“We have made meaningful progress, but our work is far from done. The challenges facing the sector are real, complex, and evolving. But so too is our resolve. With renewed focus, confidence in our actions, and a firm commitment to the public interest, the LSB will continue to play a vital role in making legal services more accessible, ethical, and effective for all.”
