The solicitors’ regulator is one of only two of the eight frontline legal regulators to achieve top ratings in the Legal Service Board’s latest assessment of its domains. In a new-style Regulatory Performance Assessment published today, the Solicitors Regulation Authority receives two green ‘sufficient’ ratings, meaning its performance ‘raises no concerns’.
However the report points out that the assessment period, the eight months to May 2023, misses what may be three key events: the Daily Mail’s ‘sting’ against immigration practitioners, the intervention into Axiom Ince and ‘the coming to light of the potential scale of involvement of legal professionals in the miscarriages of justice at the heart of the Post Office scandal’.
The assessment is the first to be carried out under a new ‘performance framework’, the LSB said. The only other body to receive two greens is the Costs Lawyer Standards Board, which regulates 702 practitioners.
The Bar Standards Board meanwhile receives two amber ‘partial’ ratings – an improvement from the previous, 2022, assessment in which it was the only regulator to be assessed as ‘insufficient’. CILEX Regulation likewise scores ‘partial’ for ‘well-led’ and ‘effective approach to regulation’.
Overall, the LSB identifies three common themes that frontline regulators need to address:
- Transparency: some regulators are not open enough ‘about how they make decisions affecting consumers, the public and their regulated communities’;
- Skills: some regulators ‘need to do more to ensure they have the right skills, expertise and systems in place’; and
- Use of evidence: ‘Several regulators need to do more to show how they use evidence to make decisions and evaluate the impact of their work.’
The LSB ‘expects to see progress on these areas before the next round of assessments,’ the report states. ‘In particular, regulators need to demonstrate they have sufficient capacity and capability to deliver for consumers and the wider public, as well as ensuring they are able to identify and respond to emerging risks in a timely way,’ Richard Orpin, director of regulation and policy, said. ‘The LSB will continue to hold regulators to account for their performance.’
Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: ‘Having confidence in our regulator is important for the rule of law. Both the legal profession and the public need to be assured that legal regulation is robust for the judicial system to operate effectively. It is therefore good to see the progress the SRA has made as it continues to maintain its “sufficient” assessment rating.’
Emmerson said that, last May, the SRA took over the management of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund, thus demonstrating ‘a commitment to maintaining high professional standards and long-term consumer protections’.
But he noted that the Axiom Ince intervention is not covered by the assessment. ‘If the LSB’s review were to identify any failings by the SRA before the intervention, it would be appropriate for the ratings given to the SRA to be reviewed.’
