Draft Legal Services Act 2007 (Approved Regulator) Order 2023

Alex Cunningham Excerpts

Wednesday 24th January 2024 General Committees

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sharma. I thank the Minister for outlining the measure before the Committee. I will not keep colleagues very long, as we do not oppose it.

We all know of the stress on our legal services and on those providing them; anything that can be done to make them better will have our support. A well-functioning legal services market is a key contributor to access to justice. A strong and competitive legal services market can lead to a reduction in the price of services and ensure greater access to justice for all, including the least well off.

The Minister outlined a measure to amend the Legal Services Act 2007—the legislative framework for regulating legal services in England and Wales. Under the 2007 Act, only individuals and businesses authorised by an approved regulator or those exempt from the requirement to be authorised are entitled to provide reserved legal activities. The six reserved legal activities are: the exercise of a right of audience; the conduct of litigation; reserved instrument activities; probate activities; notarial activities; and the administration of oaths. This order cancels the designation of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants as an approved regulator under part 4 of the Act, “Regulation of Approved Regulators”. That means that it is no longer permitted to authorise and regulate persons in relation to probate activities. The Minister outlined its small workload in that regard.

As I said, we will not oppose the measure, but we would be interested to hear whether the Minister expects further measures to be introduced to reform the Legal Services Act. The merits of the Act are heavily debated by those inside Parliament and even more so by those outside. As legislators, we need to ensure that practices and services are kept up to date. We recently had Bar Council chairman Nick Vineall KC in front of the Justice Committee. He described the 2007 Act as “fit for purpose” but pointed out that there was originally supposed to be a triennial review of the Legal Services Board. That has not happened. Does the Minister plan to review the LSB any time soon?

We do not oppose the order but hope that everyone in the Committee will recognise that much needs to be done by working with the sector to drive not just improvement, but capacity.