Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of the changes to the civil standard of proof proposed in the recent consultation from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal on users of legal services.

The legal profession in England and Wales is independent of government. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has a statutory right to make its own rules, under section 46 of the Solicitors Act 1974. We understand the SDT is still reviewing consultation responses, and no final decisions have been made. The SDT will no doubt consider the impact on users of legal services of any changes to its rules that it wishes to make.