Tensions appear to be mounting between the Legal Services Board, Bar Council and Bar Standards Board. The Legal Services Board has warned that it could take enforcement action against the Bar Standards Board while the Bar Council has asked the Ministry of Justice to instigate a review of the Legal Services Board next year.
The oversight regulator revealed in correspondence with the BSB that it has 13 ‘key issues of concern’ and may need to consider exercising its statutory powers. Concerns include events that led to the BSB publicly apologising to Dinah Rose KC.
The oversight regulator wants the BSB to demonstrate that it has recognised the seriousness of the situation, that it is committed to fundamental reform, and that it will move with ‘appropriate pace and rigour’ to devise, plan and execute ‘a credible programme of change that satisfies the expectations of the LSB and begins to rebuild confidence with the public and stakeholders’.
The BSB told the Gazette that it agreed some improvement was needed on some areas of concern, such as the timeliness of investigations. However, in other areas of concern, such as handling of online exams, the BSB has improved and successfully delivered all of the online sittings of the ethics exam in pupillage this year.
‘But sometimes our assessment of risk is simply different from that of the LSB, so we are discussing these issues with them,’ the BSB said.
The Bar Council was copied into the LSB’s latest email.
Bar chair Mark Fenhalls KC told the Gazette that the BSB is not performing as it should and is failing to investigate complaints against barristers sufficiently quickly. But the representative body is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that the steps being taken by the standards regulator to address the problems will begin to resolve the backlogs next year.
Fenhalls said: ‘The problems are complex, but there is little doubt the BSB diverts substantial resources to peripheral issues, which is a major contributor to the BSB’s unacceptable delays. It is very important that the BSB concentrates on its core functions and that it does not duplicate work done by the Bar Council.’
However, he said it was important that the LSB performs the functions it has under the Legal Services Act 2007 and ‘does not attempt to act as a regulator of all legal services, nor of the entire legal services sector, because parliament has not given it that role’.
Fenhalls said the Bar Council has asked the MoJ to instigate a tailored review of the LSB, pointing out that the last one took place five years ago.
The LSB told the Gazette that overseeing approved regulators is firmly within its remit. 'This includes ensuring they have the leadership, capability and capacity needed to perform effectively and protect the public.’
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