LSB annual report shows progress in driving up standards and ensuring regulation increases public trust

The Legal Services Board (LSB) published its Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 (PDF). The report describes the LSB’s work to ensure regulation contributes to reshaping legal services to better meet the needs of society.

The LSB has also produced a summary version of the report (PDF).

Some key projects and activities during the year included:

• Publishing their first assessment of regulators against the LSB’s new performance framework. It showed that while progress has been made in some areas, regulators need to demonstrate sufficient capacity and capability to deliver for consumers and the wider public and ensure they can identify and respond to emerging risks in a timely way. The LSB will continue monitoring the regulators’ progress in meeting our expectations.
• Progressing a significant work programme on professional ethics. The LSB published a literature review examining how the rule of law applies to legal professionals and how, in different contexts, sufficiently high standards of professional ethical conduct might not be upheld. This contributes to the LSB’s work to ensure lawyers uphold the high standards the public expects.
• Publishing findings from a call for evidence on using and misusing non-disclosure agreements and joining the Government Taskforce on Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to identify non-legislative solutions to complement legislation. The LSB led the taskforce’s workstream on legal services ethics.
• Commissioning an independent review of matters leading up to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s intervention into the collapse of the law firm Axiom Ince. The LSB will ensure the sector learns from the findings.
• Developing and consulting on proposals to help create a culture of continuous feedback and learning in legal services. They have subsequently introduced new rules to help ensure that when consumers complain to a legal services provider about a service, they are listened to, and their feedback is used to make improvements.
• Effectively resolving disputes and disagreements between the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) and CILEx Regulation Limited (CRL). The LSB continued to monitor matters in relation to the undertakings given by CILEX and CRL to fulfil recommendations in our April 2023 investigation.
• They continued collaborating with others to encourage a profession that reflects the diversity of the communities it serves at all levels. That included contributing to the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), including by compiling its annual action plan to improve judicial diversity. Supported by funding from the Ministry of Justice, we commissioned statistical research into the diversity of the judicial talent pipeline on behalf of the JDF. They will publish this later in 2024.
• The Annual Report and Accounts show that the LSB continues to manage resources diligently and deliver value for money for levy payers and the public. The LSB’s expenditure budget for the year was £4.679m, and the actual expenditure outturn was £4.659m, within 1% of budget. The generation of £109k of non-levy income meant there was a total surplus of £129k to be returned to the Approved Regulators as a rebate on the levy in the next financial year.

Alan Kershaw, Chair of the LSB, said:

“Over the last year, the LSB has continued to ensure that regulation drives up standards and contributes to increasing public trust and confidence in legal services. High-profile matters such as the Post Office IT Horizon scandal and the collapses of Axiom Ince and SSB Law reinforce the importance of effective regulation, consumer protection and high standards of professional ethics.

We expect all regulators to continue improving their performance to benefit people who need legal services, which will also be to the benefit of the profession and of society as a whole. We will continue to monitor progress and take action where necessary.

Over the coming year, we will build on what we have achieved and ensure that regulation plays a significant role in helping people and businesses access the high-quality legal services they deserve.”