I note the debate about the future of the Legal Services Board. I remain intrigued and confused.

I thought that the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority represented our professional and regulatory body respectively. Alas, it would seem that this is not the case, since the opening line on the home page of the LSB reads: ‘We are the new independent body responsible for overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales.’

It would seem to be a fairly common view that there is an overlap in the work carried out by the LSB and the Law Society/SRA. I echo the sentiments of the chairman of the Bar Council, Michael Todd QC, when he said ‘it makes no sense’ for work carried out by the LSB and the SRA to be duplicated.

The LSB’s chief executive Chris Kenny points out that the body’s budget has been cut by 9% to less than £4.5m, and the plan is to cut the budget further by 2014/15 to £4.4m. Where is this money going?

If there is duplication, then this is frankly an obscene extravagance that members of the profession can ill afford to pay for. Would it not make sense to eradicate duplication and shift work that remains within the LSB to the Law Society/SRA?

Why not have a plan to scrap the LSB to save costs? It is all very well for Mr Kenny to claim that the LSB’s role is to improve ‘the performance of approved regulators while helping consumers and enabling the profession to flourish’. Frankly, I would rather have one professional body and one regulator.

Andrew Brooks, Blythe Liggins, Leamington Spa