Paraskeva offers better news for Lock and OSS

The Lord Chancellors Department will shortly receive encouraging news about progress at the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors, it emerged last week, following a government statement that it faces difficult decisions over the OSSs future.Lord Chancellors Department minister David Lock told an adjournment debate brought by Labour MP George Stevenson that although the OSS culture has improved, the response to many recent targets can only be described as disappointing.

We are watching closely, and we will have to make difficult decisions.Mr Stevenson and other Labour MPs expressed misgivings about the effectiveness of self-regulation.

Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskeva responded: The minister is not yet aware of the latest performance figures, which we believe he will find much more encouraging...

We have already achieved targets set for March 2001 and, with the exception of nine complex cases, have cleared all pre-1998 files.

We are exceeding our through-put times for handling individual complaints.

Neil Rose