Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in investigating complaints on solicitor conduct.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The legal profession in England and Wales operates independently of government. The responsibility for regulating the sector sits with the approved regulators, overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of solicitors and law firms in England and Wales. More information regarding the conduct solicitors must adhere to can be found here: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/standards-regulations/code-conduct-solicitors/.
As part of its role, the SRA investigates consumers’ complaints when allegations of solicitor misconduct are made and has a number of disciplinary powers, including the power to issue fines and refer an individual to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which can suspend or strike a solicitor off the roll.
Given the sector’s independence, it would not be appropriate for the Ministry of Justice to interfere with decisions made by the SRA during these investigations, or its processes.
If individuals remain unhappy with the decisions reached by the SRA, they can contact their complaints team at: complaintsteam@sra.org.uk or via https://www.sra.org.uk/home/contact-us/.
Whilst the LSB oversees the regulators (such as the SRA and the BSB) and ensures they fulfil their statutory responsibilities, it does not have jurisdiction to review regulators’ decisions or process on individual cases.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of effectiveness of the Legal Ombudsman in processing complaints in a timely manner.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Legal Ombudsman (LeO) plays an important role in ensuring consumers of legal services have access to an independent and effective complaints resolution process. It has been on a challenging journey to improve performance over recent years, having reduced the number of cases awaiting assessment by 42% between 2022-2024. Performance over the same period has also improved with the percentage of complaints resolved within 90 days increasing from 11% to 46%.
LeO acknowledges there is further to go to reach an acceptable position in terms of its queue and wait times. In response to these challenges, the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC), which oversees LeO, has implemented a modernisation plan. This includes increasing frontline staff capacity, enhancing case management systems, and streamlining complaint-handling processes.
Asked by: Julia Buckley (Labour - Shrewsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when her Department plans to publish a response to the Law Commission report entitled Celebrating Marriage: A New Weddings Law, published in July 2022.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We are aware that the Law Commission made recommendations for wholesale change of weddings law in July 2022. We will take the time as a new Government to properly consider this issue. We will set out our next steps on our manifesto commitment to strengthen rights and protections for women in cohabitating couples in the near future.