The oversight regulator is minded to increase its budget by 9% next year but stressed this is needed to carry out its extra work. The Legal Services Board’s proposed new budget of £4.679m represents an extra £2.11 on every practising certificate fee. The organisation stressed this is a real-terms decrease when adjusted for inflation.

The potential budget increase, revealed in board papers for this week’s meeting, comes at a time when the LSB is increasing staff salaries by 2% following approval from the Ministry of Justice.

LSB chair Helen Phillips said: ‘We have challenged ourselves to keep our resources to the minimum level required to respond effectively to the scale of the challenges that the sector is facing.

'The board reflected that this really was the minimum amount necessary to resource the proposed business plan, which we consider will be essential to driving the improved outcomes for consumers and the public, which are more important than ever as the cost of living crisis bites.’

A draft business plan for 2023/24 will be published in the coming weeks which will set out the work of the LSB. New projects include market surveillance to understand the developments in the legal sector, a review of the LSB enforcement policy and an emphasis on what frontline regulators can do to help vulnerable consumers.

A key area of focus next year will also be making sure regulators such as the SRA deliver greater consumer empowerment and ongoing competence.

The LSB said it had been ‘mindful of the difficult economic conditions in wider society’ and pressures on law firms when considering the new budget, but it was vital that consumers could rely on continued high standard of regulation.

The organisation added: ‘In order to deliver this work, it is necessary for us to require additional resources, although this is a budgetary decrease in real terms. We consider that all of the work that we are proposing will bring benefit to consumers and professionals, from seeking an inclusive-design approach to support consumers in vulnerable circumstances, to ensuring the rule of law is upheld and professional ethics maintained across the sector.'

The LSB will soon launch an eight-week consultation on the draft business plan and then present a final business plan and budget to the board for approval in March 2023.