CILEX has moved one step closer to giving the Solicitors Regulation Authority power to oversee legal executives after declaring that it has received ‘strong support’ from the profession, employers and consumers for its controversial proposal.

The representative body consulted on plans last autumn to transfer regulation from CILEx Regulation to the SRA despite hundreds of members signalling in a separate CILEx Regulation consultation that they did not wish to move.

Today, CILEX said more than 1,200 people responded to its consultation and 2,237 members of the public participated in a poll conducted by IPSOS Mori.

Consultation respondents include the Law Society, which opposed the move. However, CILEX said today that all questions relating to the regulatory switch achieved ‘at least a 60% positive response’. Various consultation outcome documents have been published on CILEX’s website.

Linda Ford

Ford: 'changes in the public interest'

CILEX chief executive Linda Ford said: ‘We are encouraged by the engagement we have had from our members, employer organisations and from across the legal profession, as well as the consumer research we have undertaken. These insights have been extremely useful in ensuring that any changes we make will be in the public interest, improving consumer trust and confidence and supporting the important role CILEX professionals have in the delivery of legal services.

‘These are important reforms that have the potential to drive positive change for both the consumers and providers of legal services. CILEX is now working towards providing additional assurances, clarity and detail, with a view to finalising our proposals in the near future.’

Additional assurances and clarifications being sought from the SRA include ‘assurance regarding the cost of regulation and the principle of no cross-subsidy, in light of the Axiom Ince case’, CILEX said.

Next steps will be announced when the SRA considers responses to its own consultation at a board meeting on 23 January.

 

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