The Legal Services Board of England and Wales (LSB) has launched a consultation examing proposed new rules and guidance for alterations to regulatory arrangements. The LSB is considering the rule changes as part of its statutory functions in assessing applications from the nine different regulatory bodies in England and Wales to alter their regulatory arrangements. The existing process for this has not been substantially reviewed since 2010.
Following engagement with the approved regulators, which act as the representatives for each of the different legal professions in England and Wales, as well as the regulatory bodies, which regulate these professions in the public interest, the LSB has developed new rules and guidance intended to make sure the applications are explicitly and demonstrably focused on ensuring that all changes promote the regulatory objectives.
Matthew Hill, Chief Executive of the Legal Services Board has said, “In discussion with regulators, we have developed new rules and guidance to ensure changes to regulatory arrangements are focused on promoting the regulatory objectives. We have made our expectations clearer and set out the regulatory changes that require our approval and the circumstances in which we may refuse to consider an application. The changes should lead to higher quality, evidence-based applications, and more efficient use of both the LSB’s and regulatory bodies’ resources.”
Read more about the consultation here, or view the documents here, or the background to the proposals here.