Solicitors can expect rational and evidence-based regulation by the Legal Services Board, its newly appointed chairman said this week.


In an interview with the Gazette, David Edmonds, former Oftel Director general and current chairman of the board of NHS Direct, said his approach was all about 'proportionality, transparency and analysis'.



The Legal Services Board will be the overarching regulator of the legal profession under the Legal Services Act 2007, but will delegate day-to-day regulation to 'front-line regulators' such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the Bar Council. However, it will have powers to take a more hands-on approach to regulation if it is not satisfied with the performance of the front-line regulators.



Edmonds, who is also currently a commissioner at the Legal Services Commission (LSC), has been tasked with recruiting seven to ten board members, including a chief executive, from the 'more than 300 applications' received. While declining to be drawn on what the balance between lawyer and lay members of the board would be, he said: 'I am absolutely clear that we will need legal brains on the board and inside the organisation... We need to create an organisation that is intellectually first class.'



He added: 'When we built Ofcom, we went out into the marketplace and employed people of the highest calibre, and the companies we regulated welcomed that because they were getting quality of analysis.'



Edmonds said the board would not feel under pressure to prove itself by taking an overly interventionist approach, adding: 'It is incumbent on the board to be quite clear that it regulates only where it needs to. That said, Parliament has set this [board] up with some very clear duties about the protection of the consumer and effective regulation.'



Edmonds added that he would not introduce changes without following the 'scientific' method of research followed by consultation.



Edmonds is a former chief executive of the Housing Corporation, and a former managing director at banking group NatWest. He will leave his roles at the LSC and NHS Direct within the next few months.



Rachel Rothwell