Delays in approving rules of professional conduct come under attack from board

Consultative Panel: lay members cast doubt on DCA move to turn guidance into rules

The Law Society's new regulation board criticised the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and Legal Services Consultative Panel last week over continued delays in approving the new rules of professional conduct for solicitors, which include the high-profile provisions on conflicts and confidentiality.


The board, meeting for the first time since taking on responsibility for regulatory matters on 1 January, was told the approval process is 'disappointingly slow'.


The code of conduct was signed off by the Law Society Council in September 2004 following several years of work and consultation. It aims to slim down the 900-page Guide to the Professional Conduct of Solicitors by focusing on the core rules, supplemented by non-binding guidance that is shorter than now in the guide.


The 24 rules are in different stages of approval by the panel - which advises the Lord Chancellor - and then the DCA, with those on conflict and confidentiality among the most advanced. They have gone through the panel and are now with the minister, Bridget Prentice, who is seeking views from senior judges and the Office of Fair Trading.


However, last month the DCA asked if the Law Society could turn some of the guidance into rule form. A report to the regulation board said: 'We advised that we could not achieve this without, in effect, starting the entire process afresh.'


During the public part of the board's meeting in London, members said this approach was ill-advised. Jonathan Spencer, a non-lawyer and a DCA official until a year ago, said 'the idea of turning guidance into rules betrays a considerable amount of ignorance about what guidance and rules are'.


Lay member Alan Kershaw, chief executive of the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners, said he was 'alarmed' by the suggestions, predicting that a 'huge tome' would be the result.


The panel was criticised for raising small points of detail rather than taking a broader view, and not appearing to realise how much consultation had already taken place.


The board's chairman, Peter Williamson, said he has passed on the concerns to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, and will shortly meet its incoming chairman, Lord Justice Moore-Bick, to discuss the lack of real progress made.


A DCA spokeswoman said the Law Society had made its views known, but added: 'A lot of consideration is given to important changes and that can take time. But we don't think we've taken overlong.'