Legal Services Board

Powers and duties

The Legal Services Board (LSB) is an overseer and supervisor of the regulatory framework in England and Wales, and all the approved regulators.

Its chair and members are appointed by the Lord Chancellor.

Its statutory powers and duties include:

  • authorising bodies to be approved regulators of legal services
  • authorising bodies to license alternative business structures
  • approving professional rules, and directing changes to them if this proves necessary and justifiable
  • directing approved regulators to take a particular action, and applying sanctions if they do not
  • commissioning, monitoring and investigating research into the legal services market
  • recommending to the Lord Chancellor which services should be reserved services, and therefore compulsorily regulated.

Relationship with approved regulators

The Legal Services Board must seek to resolve matters informally before exercising its powers.

It can only intervene in a decision of the approved regulator where the regulator's actions were plainly unreasonable.

It must also exercise its functions according to its regulatory objectives, set out in Section 1 of the Legal Services Act 2007. These include protecting and promoting the public interest, and promoting and maintaining adherence to the professional principles.

Safeguarding the independence of the profession

Maintaining the independence of the profession is one of the regulatory objectives for the LSB contained in the act.

The Lord Chancellor can only appoint its chair and members after proper consultation with the Lord Chief Justice.

The Lord Chancellor has a statutory duty to uphold the rule of law, and will also be expected to follow the Office for the Commissioner of Public Appointments (OCPA) guidelines in appointments to the LSB.

The involvement of the Lord Chief Justice further helps to ensure that there can be no arbitrary elements in the procedure, and that no appointment is political in nature.

The timetable

The Legal Services Board and its chair, David Edmonds have now been appointed. The LSB is expected to be fully operational by spring 2010.

Consultation on the business plan 2009/10

The LSB have consulted on their business plan for 2009/10. The consultation closed on 13 March. You can find out more and read the Law Society's response below.


More information

Read about the Legal Services Act
Read more about Alternative business structures
Read more about complaints handling arrangements
Frequently asked questions about the act