Kenny maintains pressure on Law Society over independence of SRA

Chris Kenny, chief executive of the Legal Services Board, has written to the Law Society’s chief executive, Des Hudson, demanding copies of all documents supplied to members of the society’s business and oversight board.

At the end of last year, the LSB sent a notice to Chancery Lane under Section 55 of the Legal Services Act, requiring it to supply both a monthly report and copies of all documents sent to the ovesight board.

“We used this statutory mechanism as we considered that the arrangements to ensure the independence of regulatory functions from representative functions were not necessarily compliant with the LSB’s internal governance rules,” Kenny said.

He said the LSB took account of “serious concerns about the independence of regulation” expressed during the year.

Although the new arrangements were described by Kenny as “beginning to evolve into an effective tool for delivering oversight”, the LSB had some concerns about how they were working in practice.

Kenny said he was concerned that the society’s oversight board, in addition to overseeing the SRA’s board, “acted as a decision-making body on what seem to be appropriately SRA executive decisions”.

He accused the oversight board of making recommendations to the Law society’s management board rather than its council and that capital expenditure may be being managed in a way inconsistent with the LSB’s rules.

Kenny concluded that “further monitoring” of Chancery Lane was “a proportionate way to seek ongoing assurance” that the arrangements did not prevent the society from acting in a manner consistent with regulatory objectives.

The LSB’s chief executive said, “in the light of progress made”, that the Law Society was no longer required to provide a formal written report but to continue to supply the papers provided to members of its oversight board.

The society was issued with a fresh Section 55 notice on the new basis.