Bar Council chairman Michael Todd QC has called for the Legal Services Board (LSB) to be "disbanded", citing support from Attorney General Dominic Grieve and new Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.

Speaking at the annual Bar Council conference on Saturday (10 November), Todd said that the LSB was going "beyond its brief" as a regulator and trying to "shape the legal landscape".

Todd added that he has received support for his views from Grayling, who he said has "sympathy with the notion of over-regulation". Grieve, who also spoke at the conference, said that he too had raised the issue of over-regulation in the legal profession with Grayling.

In addition, Todd drew attention to the costs incurred at the Bar to support the LSB, stating: "The LSB doesn't mind what it spends. They are not using their own money".

In the closing address to the conference, Grieve said: "The LSB is not exactly flavour of the month with any of the professions. I think there are justifiable concerns that it may at times tend towards micro-management. I do share the Bar's concern with that."

A LSB spokesperson said of Todd's comments: "We have noted with interest."

The news comes after much discussion over the LSB's role in recent months, after the body passed the Government's triennial review largely unchanged. Both the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Law Society have called for it to be scaled back and potentially abolished.

The LSB acts as an over-arching regulator for the legal profession, supervising bodies including the Law Society, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the BSB.