Brown: Danger to regulatory objectives
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is not improving its performance with “sufficient urgency or pace”, the oversight regulator has concluded.
As a result, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has decided to escalate its informal enforcement action against the BSB, beyond the current requirement of voluntary assurance letters and meetings.
It has invited the BSB to agree voluntary undertakings on performance targets and monitoring for implementation of its reform programme.
The decision comes in the wake of the LSB’s annual performance assessments, in which the BSB failed to provide sufficient assurance on whether it met two of the three standards: well-led (which relates to resources and capability) and operational delivery.
It only provided ‘partial assurance’ in relation to the other, having an effective approach to regulation.
In a letter to BSB chair Kathryn Stone, LSB interim chair Catherine Brown said this was a continuation of concerns expressed by the LSB over the past five years.
She acknowledged that the BSB has made “some progress in delivering change” since the enforcement review it commissioned from City firm Fieldfisher, which was published in April 2024, including an organisational restructure completed last December.
“While we note you have continued to acknowledge the LSB’s concerns, it is our view, given the above, that the BSB has not moved to address them in a way that demonstrates sufficient urgency or pace…
“We consider that the BSB’s provision of insufficient assurance that it is well led with the resources and capability required to work for the public has had, or is likely to have, an adverse impact on the regulatory objectives, in particular of protecting and promoting the public interest, and of protecting and promoting the interests of consumers.
“We also consider that the BSB’s continuing failure to meet many of its KPIs for authorisation and enforcement, as identified in successive regulatory performance assessments has had, or is likely to have, an adverse impact in particular on the regulatory objective of encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession.
“This is despite the BSB adjusting its KPIs for timeliness for both authorisations and investigations last year to make them more achievable.”
Ms Brown warned that, if the undertakings were either not agreed or did not work, the LSB would move onto a “more formal intervention”.
In response, Ms Stone said the BSB would willingly enter discussions about voluntary undertakings on future performance, including on targets and measures.
“The Bar Standards Board is reforming with pace and purpose. Our operational performance, in particular, is steadily improving and, in the case of the quality of our decisions, has always been at a high level,” she said.
She expressed confidence that “closer familiarity with the work of the Bar Standards Board will close the perception gap”.
The LSB assessment also found that the Solicitors Regulation Authority had provided insufficient assurance on its operational delivery, but the LSB decided that no further action was required given that it has already initiated enforcement action on the back of its review of SRA’s approach to Axiom Ince.
This is set to result in directions that would require the SRA to make specific changes to its processes.
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