The Legal Services Board (LSB) has given notice that it will be reviewing the governance arrangements between the Law Society and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Whilst surprised that the notice had been given at this time, the Law Society welcomes the review as an opportunity to clarify its statutory duty of oversight, as it hopes to work effectively with the SRA for the benefit of the legal profession.

In a statement on its website, the LSB said: Following representations made to us by the SRA in response to a request from ourselves and taking into account the information that has been provided by both the SRA and the Law Society, the Legal Services Board has decided to commence a formal investigation into the internal governance arrangements between the TLS and the SRA.

'The investigation will consider whether the current arrangements between the TLS and the SRA are in line with Part 4 of the Schedule to LSB’s internal governance rules 2009 (IGR) which require that the internal governance arrangements must not impair the independence and effectiveness of the performance of regulatory functions. In particular we will consider whether the arrangements for the Business and Oversight Board have worked as the parties intended, enabling TLS to exercise appropriate oversight whilst complying with the IGR.

Law Society President, Robert Bourns, said: The Law Society does not fetter the SRA’s regulatory activities and responds to consultations as any other stakeholder. On a day-to-day basis the two organisations maintain good working relations and share support services such as finance and HR systems

We will work closely and collaboratively with the LSB on their review.

The President also noted that the Competition and Markets Authority's recent review concluded that it could find no harm as a result of the current arrangements for regulation and that a full market investigation was not necessary.