BSB aims for full independence from Bar Council

The Bar Standards Board propose to lobby for full independence from the Bar Council. BSB’s website draft Strategic Plan 2016-2019

“Our financial relationship with the representative body of the Bar should be made clearer and ultimately there should be separation so that both we the regulator and the Bar Council … can carry out our respective roles more transparently and powerfully, in the public interest.”

The Legal Services Board believe that the present setup is too complex and that regulators – the largest being the BSB and the Solicitors Regulation Authority – should be merged.

This would greatly affect the finances of the Bar Council and the Law Society who rely on provisions in the Legal Services Act to receive practising certificate fees to finance their operations.

“We use only 65% of the funds raised from the profession in order to regulate it, the remaining 35% being used by the Bar Council. A further levy on the profession is made by the LSB. Our capacity to reduce the burden of regulatory costs on the profession is thus both constrained and to an extent driven by strategies and work not owned by the BSB.”

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