Legal Services Board of England and Wales release new report on ongoing competence

The Legal Services Board of England and Wales (LSB) has released a new blog alongside a newly commissioned report on ongoing competence. The blog highlights the fact that ‘the LSB’s work on ongoing competence is central to its regulatory objective to protect and promote the interests of consumers. Consumers should be able to trust that legal professionals have the necessary and up to date skills, knowledge and attributes to provide good quality legal services.’

The report was commissioned from legal market consultancy Hook Tangaza, following the LSB’s call for evidence in 2020, which identified ongoing competence measures used in legal services and other professional sectors in England and Wales as a key area of interest, stakeholders told the LSB that it would be beneficial to understand the approaches of other jurisdictions.

The blog sets out how the LSB has used the report to “identify some models in jurisdictions taking a first-principles approach to assuring ongoing competence, thinking about what they are trying to achieve and why. As a result, these jurisdictions are increasingly attentive to the regulation of legal professionals beyond the point of qualification i.e. in-practice regulation.”

Adding that “In-practice regulation has historically been overlooked around the world, while ensuring ongoing competence has not been prioritised or linked to a wider understanding of what competence looks like in a practising legal professional. This is out of step with consumer expectations of competence and the robust checks they assume are in place throughout legal professionals’ careers.”

Read the full report here, read more about the LSB’s work on competence here, or read the blog here.

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