Parliamentary question addressed to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence

To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if his attention has been drawn to the concerns among staff at the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal that they all face redundancy as a result of the implementation of the Legal Services Regulation Bill; if all or any of the staff will be transferred to the new disciplinary body or will there be an entirely new recruitment process put in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter?

Reply

As I indicated in my reply to Question number 491 of 21 March 2012 the new Legal Services Regulatory Authority to be established under the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011 will be independent of the legal professions and of the Government in the performance of its functions. This will include new and independent procedures relating to allegations of professional misconduct by either solicitors or barristers. Such complaints will be dealt with under the auspices of the Authority’s Complaints Committee and supported, where appropriate, by the work of the new and independent Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal. Under the Bill, members of the public will no longer go to the Law Society or to the Bar Council and their respective disciplinary tribunals to deal with complaints, as happens at the moment, but will instead do so through the Legal Services Regulatory Authority.
The Law Society has recently recognised that it would be “in the best interests of the public and the profession” if complaints about solicitors were no longer to be dealt with by the Society but by the new Regulatory Authority to be established under the Bill . The independence of the new Regulatory Authority and of its attendant complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal procedures is fundamental to their success and to the avoidance of any perception that complaints about lawyers are being dealt with by lawyers themselves or their representative bodies.
Under the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011, therefore, the complaints systems currently operated by the legal professional bodies are to be replaced by new procedures the independence of which will have to be reflected in the relevant recruitment and appointment processes. In closing the Second Stage debate on the Bill I confirmed that I am considering possible Committee Stage amendments to create appropriately independent procedures for the appointment of members of the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, its Complaints Committee and of the Legal Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal. Similarly, I expressed the view that staff appointments to the new Authority would be better made by the Authority itself under a public competition carried out by the Public Appointments Service. While the transition to a new and independent complaints procedure under the Bill will have an impact on staff currently involved in that area it will be open to such staff – who would obviously possess the relevant skills and experience – to offer to apply for positions advertised by the new and independent Legal Services Regulatory Authority.