Legal Services Board public bodies review – Law Society response

10 Mar 2026

2 minutes read

The Legal Services Board (LSB) should focus on its core oversight role and set out a clear plan for a risk-based approach to overseeing frontline regulators.

The review

The LSB is the oversight regulator for legal services in England and Wales. It oversees regulators including the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is holding a triennial review of the LSB to make sure it remains necessary, effective and well-governed.

The review covers four areas of the LSB’s work and performance:

statutory remit
strategic clarity
governance and accountability arrangements
current capabilities

It will assess how the LSB and MoJ should work together to maintain sufficient focus on the evolving priorities of legal services consumers and the wider sector.

The scope of the review does not include the Legal Services Act 2007 or the performance of the SRA.

The LSB was last reviewed by the UK government in 2017.

Our view

We welcome the review of the LSB. It is an opportunity to foster proportionate risk-based regulation that protects consumers and helps the legal sector to grow and thrive.

The regulatory failings leading to the collapse of Axiom Ince and SSB group clearly show the LSB must take a more robust approach to exercising its powers in overseeing frontline regulators effectively.

The LSB should focus on its core oversight role, taking a risk-based approach and verifying performance information from frontline regulators.

The LSB should make its assurance model of oversight more robust to ensure stronger performance of the SRA and ensure it reflects the lessons of recent failures.

The LSB’s ‘light touch’ assurance model is problematic, as it relies on frontline regulators self-reporting the adequacy of their performance, with no absolute requirement for evidence.

It has also led to the LSB forming an overall positive review of the SRA’s regulatory abilities based on information provided by the SRA, all while major regulatory failures were taking place.

The profession has also noted that the LSB was slow to react to events.

Its independent reviews initiated at the end of 2023 and in 2024 were widely seen as a reaction to the public outcry caused by the large-scale consumer harm.

The LSB should prioritise its core regulatory oversight role by:

setting expectations
gathering and evaluating independent evidence
intervening where standards are not met or where new risks are identified

It should adopt a realistic workplan based on its competencies and capacity, while capitalising on the skill and expertise of partner bodies, avoiding potential duplication.

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What this means for solicitors

Regulation creates a level playing field, boosts trust in the profession and underpins our international reputation.

It is important to make sure this confidence in our market remains high and that the rules maintain England and Wales as a global legal centre.

While there is more the LSB can do to establish appropriate regulatory oversight of frontline regulators, its draft business plan recognises the need to be more proactive.

We support this move but wait to see how the LSB might work with frontline regulators to prevent problems arising and to act more quickly when they do.

In light of reports of another collapse of a law firm network, PM Law (accompanied by suspicions of fraud), it is critical that the LSB fulfils its oversight regulator role and ensures the SRA applies the lessons it has learned from the Axiom and SSB cases in understanding and managing key risks effectively.