LSB chair flags up possibility of single regulator

The chairman of the Legal Services Board (LSB), David Edmonds, has indicated that a single regulator for solicitors and barristers could be created in the not-too-distant future. Speaking to the House of Commons justice committee, Edmonds said that the current system of multiple regulators could be "easily simplified".

As reported in the Law Gazette, Edmonds rejected criticisms of the LSB but conceded that there were tensions among the different professional regulators. He said that he would be behind an overhaul of the current system if it meant less confusion for the public: "I am beginning to think of how a future might be improved. I don't see in two or three years why it would not be possible to create a regulator that applied itself across the whole landscape. It would be clearer for consumers and lawyers, but there would be enormous resistance if we attempted to rein it in."

The Law Society responded to Edmonds' comments: "The regulatory framework must protect the principle of self-regulation which is recognised as a key principle in our legal services regulatory regime and makes UK legal services attractive to the rest of the world, contributing to the international success of the profession."