Lock hints at direct levy for complaints cash ;COMPLAINTS HANDLING: Concerns over quality of decisions skewed by old cases as Society pledges efficiency ;The profession could face a direct levy to pay for complaints handling, if a government hint about future funding of the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS) is taken up. ;Speaking in the House of Commons last week, David Lock, parliamentary secretary at the Lord Chancellors Department, said there was a strong case for looking at the funding and resources needed to operate the OSS to ensure it was properly funded in future. ;Perhaps [the necessary funding and resources] should be fixed by the OSS itself, then levied on the profession, rather than those who are regulated setting the resources available to the regulator, as is the current position he warned. ;The cost of running the OSS has increased from a net budget requirement of 5.7 million in 1999 to a projected cost of 11.2 million in 2001. Income of around 3 million a year is derived from other sources. ;This week, Mr Lock restated his concern over past underfunding to the Gazette. He added that it appeared anomalous for a complaints and regulatory body to have its resources fixed by the profession which was being regulated, especially when this may be a source of pressure on the funding. ;Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva said: The OSS is part of the Law Society and the Society has guaranteed that its regulatory arm will be properly funded. We are determined to provide efficient and effective complaints-handling that gives swift redress for clients in line with targets arranged with the government. ;In the same session, Mr Lock also spoke of the governments very serious concerns about the quality of decision making at the OSS. ;Last months figures from the OSS showed that the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO) was satisfied with the OSSs handling of complaints in only 54% of cases referred to her well below the 64% target. ;OSS head of standards Ian Stevens said the delay factor in handling cases caught in the backlog and now passed to the LSO had resulted in many adverse reports. The LSOs monthly figures are not a measure of contemporary quality standards, he said. ;Sue Allen ; ; ;