The Legal Services Board of England and Wales has published its report into the disagreement between the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) and its regulator CILEX Regulation (CRL). The investigation was to determine if enforcement action was needed. Ultimately the oversight regulator decided that matter could be resolved informally.
The dispute arose from CILEX’s decision to seek to redelegate its regulatory function to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The LSB process hinged on whether CILEX was in principle able to revoke the delegation of its regulatory functions from CRL and redelegate them to another body and/or begin preparatory steps to do so, without CRL’s consent.
The investigation also identified a number of areas in which CILEX and CRL have not been compliant with the Legal Services Act:
- The LSB finds that the manner in which CILEX first approached CRL in January 2022 with its proposals for redelegation of its regulatory functions to the SRA was not consistent with the regulatory objectives, in particular the protection and promotion of the public interest and the interests of consumers, and did not meet its obligations in rule 2(3) of the IGR.
- The LSB considers that CRL has not approached its dialogue, communications and relationship with CILEX in a manner that was liable to protect and promote the public interest and interests of consumers, and was not consistent with its duties under s. 28 of the Act.