The White Paper on the reform of legal services envisages the creation of a legal services board (LSB) to regulate the Law Society. The chairman and members of the LSB would be direct appointees of the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs.

Among other powers, the LSB would be able to set indemnity insurance arrangements, levy penalties, and even remove the regulatory functions of the Law Society altogether.


One historical parallel that springs to mind is the creation in the USSR of a class of political commissars in the 1930s to regulate the Red Army. So undermining was the effect that it led to the near-destruction of the Soviet Union by the Nazis in 1941-42. Eventually Stalin recognised this and stripped the commissars of their powers, thereby restoring effectiveness. We would do well to be alarmed.


Boris Kremer, The Compensation Shop, Gosport