Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of delays in processing open cases by the Legal Ombudsman on the finances of people who have open cases.

Under the Legal Services Act 2007, the legal profession in England and Wales, together with its regulators, operate independently of government. The oversight regulator for the legal services sector is the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) is the board responsible for administering the Legal Ombudsman Scheme (LeO), and as such, it is required to report on the performance of the Legal Ombudsman to the LSB.

The LeO has a process for prioritising cases where a consumer’s circumstances mean that their complaint needs resolving urgently. Financial circumstances are one of the factors that can be considered. This information would be held on an individual case-by-case basis, but the LeO does not systematically holds records about consumers’ finances.

If the LeO decides that a consumer has experienced financial or non-financial loss as a result of a legal provider’s failings, then the remedy it awards will be assessed at the point the LeO directs it to be made. This would mean a consumer doesn’t lose out as a result of the length of time it has taken for their case to go through the LeO’s process, irrespective of the reasons for this.

The Ministry of Justice does not intend to assess the time taken by the Legal Ombudsman to process cases and the financial impact this may have on consumers. Instead, it continues to monitor the LeO’s ongoing performance through regular assurance letters provided by the OLC to the LSB. In an assurance letter provided to the LSB on 28 November 2023, the OLC stated that LeO’s operational performance continues to make progress with improvements in timelines and wait times. At the queue’s peak in 2022, customers could expect to wait up to 16 to 24 months before their complaint reached an investigator. Half of LeO’s customers’ cases are now resolved by early resolution, with no wait time. Latest figures (December 23) show the average journey time for customers whose complaints are resolved through early resolutions has fallen from 68 days in April 2023 to 42 days in December 2023. For those customers whose complaints are investigated, journey times have also reduced in the same period. Against a backdrop of an increase in demand, the LeO has made progress in reducing waiting times in recent years and anticipates a 30% reduction by the end of the year. So far in 2023/24 44% of all cases have been resolved within 90 days. In 2021/22 80% were taking more than 180 days.