Background
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) was established by the Bar Council in 2006 as an independent body to carry out the Bar Council's regulatory functions. The Bar Council is the Approved Regulator as well as the barristers' representative body. There are around 15,000 practising barristers (over 12,000 in self-employed practice and around 3,000 employed). The Bar Council's role includes representative work on behalf of the Bar, negotiating fees for publicly funded work, dealing with Government and the judiciary on issues affecting the Bar and promoting the Bar in England and Wales and globally.
Substantial changes to the regulatory system have been implemented by the Legal Services Act 2007 including the establishment of the Legal Services Board (LSB) and the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). The main changes are:
- Lawyers offering reserved legal services (e.g. appearing in the higher courts) must be regulated by Approved Regulators, of which the Bar Council, along with the Law Society, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers and others, is one; the regulatory work of the Bar Council is undertaken by the independent BSB.
- Those approved regulators must ensure that their regulatory functions are separated from their representational work, though this does not require them to create separate organisations;
- The Legal Services Board (LSB) has been established to oversee the work of the Approved Regulators, with the power to give directions and impose sanctions if the regulator acts in a way which causes damage to one or more of the regulatory objectives set out in the Act;
- The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) has been established to provide redress for consumers, but the Approved Regulators will continue to have disciplinary powers over their members in respect of misconduct;
- Alternative business structures (ABSs) (i.e. bodies offering reserved legal services where the owners or managers include both lawyers and non-lawyers) will be possible from the end of 2011;