In April 2020, the Legal Services Consumer Panel published its strategy for the next three years. For the first time, we aligned our overarching strategic objectives with the Legal Services Board’s (LSB) sector-wide strategy, shaping our work around the objectives of fairer outcomes, stronger confidence and better services.

The panel supports the LSB’s objectives and wants to signal its full commitment to sector-wide solutions that address common challenges. Challenges around access to justice, diversity, improvements in information provision and even a cohesive response to Covid, require collaboration and partnership.

The panel has always been a strong advocate of regulators partnering on common issues, as well as with external stakeholders who may be best placed to deliver on some of the regulatory objectives or identify barriers to their achievement. Where appropriate, we intend to help regulators make these links.

Rising insurance premiums

The need to collaborate and partner is becoming ever more apparent. For example, this year we have witnessed some insurance premiums increase exponentially for professional indemnity insurance (PII), affecting many providers across the market and adding to the cost of regulation; costs which consumers end up paying.

Similarly, we know that two regulators have been adversely impacted by the decision of their insurance company to withdraw cover for their compensation schemes, leaving both scrambling for interim solutions and adequate consumer protection.

The current issues with PII and the compensation fund arrangements reinforce the panel’s previous calls for joined-up thinking and action in these areas. Market developments have made a comprehensive review of both PII and the compensation fund arrangement even more necessary.

We are pleased that PII is under consideration by the LSB and our hope is that collaboration and partnership will lead to a set of principles and rules that is consistent across the regulated sector. More importantly, we want to see rules that deliver good consumer outcomes and value for money, and that do not erode public trust or confidence in regulation.

Placing consumers at the heart of regulation

The panel will continue to support the regulators in their statutory objectives. We are particularly keen to ensure that consumers are placed at the heart of regulation. This is an area we are keen to advise and challenge regulators on this year.

We want to see regulators and the regulated community address with more urgency the disparity in the experience of ethnic minority consumers 

We will focus on emphasising the importance of good consumer engagement and evidence-gathering, outlining what consumer focused regulation looks like, and how evaluating and monitoring regulatory policy is fundamental to the continuous improvement of regulatory decision making.

Diversity is also an area we will continue to monitor. We want to see a profession that represents the consumers it serves. Beyond this, we want to see regulators and the regulated community address with more urgency the disparity in the experience of ethnic minority consumers when compared to those from White British backgrounds, for example.

Ethnic minority consumers are less likely to be satisfied with the outcomes of their involvement with legal service providers. We all need to understand the reasons behind this better, and to remedy the disparities.

Collective action

As we begin to emerge from the worst of the Covid pandemic, this is the time to engage and form stronger partnerships with frontline advisory organisations. It is the time to understand, in greater depth, where vulnerable consumers are feeling the pinch the most. And crucially, it is the time for collective action to ensure that access to legal services does not worsen for segments of consumers.

This means that my conversations will not be limited to regulators and the regulated community. I am keen to talk to relevant government departments too and where appropriate I will highlight tensions between the statutory objectives that guide regulators, and certain aspects of social policy and funding decisions. The growth of advice deserts is an example of one of our concerns here.

I will also continue to note that the regulatory framework itself is a difficult maze for consumers to navigate, which compounds the problems they have in comprehending and making well-informed decisions.

Indeed, much of it does not make much sense to the regulatory community either. The time has also come for government to have another look at the need to update and revise the framework in the interests of all those who offer or receive legal services.