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The Solicitors Regulation Authority is “not sufficiently transparent” in explaining its decisions at board level, the Legal Services Board has said, while ticking off other regulators too.

The profession has a long way to go to meet the new price and service transparency requirements, with just 28% of firms compliant or close to compliant, our research has found.

A quarter of consumers believe their lawyer was “not transparent” on conveyancing fees, new research has shown on the day new price and service transparency rules come into force.

New rules which clearly limit the influence the Law Society can have on the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and the Bar Council on the Bar Standards Board, have been published.

The frontline regulators are making “very good progress” in improving price transparency, the Legal Services Board has said – but its consumer panel was far less impressed.

Most home-buyers do not know if their conveyancer paid a fee for a recommendation from their estate agent, according to new research from the CLC.

Solicitors’ firms are moving their whole practices or conveyancing departments to the oversight of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, it has emerged.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel has strongly criticised the “insufficient” plans of the second largest probate regulator to introduce new requirements on publishing prices.

Consumers using an online estimate generator should not have to give lawyers their contact details before receiving the figure, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers has said.

An end to owners of CMCs closing down a distressed firm and opening another – known as ‘phoenixing’ – is on the cards under new proposals from the Financial Conduct Authority.