The Legal Services Board (LSB) has for a second time put off making a decision on whether or not to approve plans for a centralised solicitors’ ‘super-exam’ after the scheme came under new criticism.

The LSB said today it would now not make a decision before 12 April.

In a letter to Paul Philip, chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), LSB head Neil Buckley said: ‘We have received additional correspondence regarding the application and need to fully consider this before making our decision.’

The second delay means the LSB is allowing itself the maximum time needed to assess an application. Under the formal approval process for any regulatory changes, the LSB would have had to approve or reject an application within 28 days of the date of application (in this case 12 January), unless an extension of up to 90 days was agreed.

However, the LSB said it may make a decision before that date.

The LSB first delayed sign off in February after legal educators and the Law Society criticised the proposals for replacing the LPC. Since then, the City of London Law Society has said that the SRA had not made a significant case for why change was needed.

In a letter to the LSB the society said the regulator had ’neither demonstrated that the current system is so flawed it needs a complete overhaul nor that the new framework is superior’.