'Must try harder', LSB says in report on smaller regulators

The LSB has identified “significant shortcomings” in the work of the smaller legal regulators, in the first of the annual ‘school reports’ it intends to publish on the organisations it oversees.

The SRA and BSB would have featured in the report, but both needed to apply for an extension before they submitted their self-assessments. The SRA’s was received in September, but the LSB said it is not due to receive the BSB’s until this month.

In his foreword to the report, LSB chairman David Edmonds said the “highest quality submissions” were those of the Council of Licensed Conveyancers and the Intellectual Property Regulation Board, which were “self-reflective and open with the LSB and who sought external review of their assessments”.

However, Edmonds said that there were “significant shortcomings” overall. “Regulators lack understanding of the needs of the consumers who use the legal services provided by those they regulate,” he said.

“There is a lack of consumer engagement, a failure to use the common framework to also understand the legal services markets in which those they regulate operate and some issues around the provision and sharing of data between legal services regulators themselves and the Legal Ombudsman.

“It is of significant concern that some regulators continue to question the need to know more about consumers and how they use legal services. Such an approach would be unacceptable from a regulator of any other sector and I believe should be unacceptable in legal services regulation.”

Edmonds warned that a number of regulators covered by the report had “significant ambitions” to expand the services they were able to regulate.

This was welcome, but the chairman warned that “substantial work” would be required for them to achieve their ambitions.

“In 2011, when we published research into the smaller approved regulators by Dr. Nick Smedley, the regulators told the LSB that they were up for the challenges of modern regulation and wished to forge their own identities.

“With some notable exceptions, we are not sure that the regulators covered by this report have grasped what this requires – let alone what the Act stipulates.

“Improvements are required across the board if regulators are indeed to show that they can meet successfully the challenges that they face.”