LSB calls for help in modernising legal services

Consultation represents opportunity for lawyers, representative bodies and third party organisations to shape the super regulator's work

The LSB has launched a consultation on its draft strategic and business plans up until 2018.

The regulator is proposing to structure its work around the twin objectives of removing regulatory barriers to competition, growth and innovation and enabling the need for legal services to be met more effectively.

The LSB also unveiled a research programme designed to keep the super regulator 'in touch with the real-world' by understanding the challenges faced by regulators, consumers and legal professionals.

Chairman of the Legal Services Board, Sir Michael Pitt, said: "Legal services are a vital part of the economy. In the last year, the sector grew to an annual turnover of just over £29bn, up 15 per cent in six years. They bring inward investment and new jobs beyond the boundaries of the sector itself. They are also a critical part of the structure of our civil society, delivering wider public interest objectives such as the rule of law. But it is a sector undergoing profound change in terms of consumer requirements, market developments and government policy.

"This exceptional growth and these significant changes present opportunities. The LSB intends to respond by freeing up legal practitioners to adapt, grow and innovate. Our goal is to ensure that citizens' legal needs are met as effectively as possible whilst, at the same time, efficiently discharging our on-going statutory responsibilities."

Sir Michael continued by saying that the LSB's work will take into account the role played by both regulated and unregulated legal service providers: "This is the reality of the market in which consumers make choices and in which practitioners compete. We also plan to collaborate with the widest possible range of consumer and legal services bodies, and to share knowledge with regulators in other sectors of the economy."

John van der Luit-Drummond is legal reporter for Solicitors Journal