The Legal Services Board has unveiled its eight-strong consumer panel to represent the interests of individual and business consumers in England and Wales.

The LSB said that the independent panel will help it develop a ‘sharper focus’ on consumers’ interests across the legal services sector, and enhance access to justice.

The consumer panel, chaired by Dr Dianne Hayter, formerly chair of the Bar Standards Board’s consumer panel, will sit for the first time later this month with the issue of referral fees at the top of the agenda.

The panel can choose to publish its advice, and should the LSB fail to agree with such advice, it will be required to publish a written statement of its reasons.

LSB chairman David Edmonds said: ‘The launch of the legal services consumer panel is a landmark in the reform of legal services regulation in England and Wales. The members of the panel launched today bring with them a broad range of backgrounds and commitment to championing the interests of all in society. We look forward to working with them in our continuing work to put consumers at the heart of legal services.’

Hayter said: ‘For the regulation of lawyers to meet the needs of clients, the consumer interest must be heard at the heart of the oversight regulator: the LSB. This is the role the consumer panel will play, assessing proposals from the standpoint of users of legal services and influencing the board accordingly. Just as lawyers have a legitimate interest in good and effective regulation, so also do clients – but without a panel, they have no formal or organised way of their voices being heard.’

The eight panel members are:

  • Jeff Bell, a trading standards consultant
  • Carol Brady, director for service improvement at the Local Better Regulation Office and a fellow of the Trading Standards Institute
  • Graham Corbett, senior national officer at the Public and Commercial Services Union and a member of the Employment Tribunal Panel
  • Elisabeth Davies, head of public engagement at Voluntary Services Overseas
  • Emma Harrison, director of external affairs at the Royal National Institute for the Deaf
  • Paul Munden, general counsel at Business Link
  • Neil Wightman, deputy head of housing needs at the London Borough of Camden and joint chair of the Association of Housing Advice Services
  • Karin Woodley, a freelance consultant and previously chief executive of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust

The eight panel members were appointed by the LSB with the approval of justice secretary Jack Straw.

The LSB oversees the frontline legal regulators, including the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Standards Board. The establishment of the consumer panel is a statutory requirement of the Legal Services Act 2007.