Last spring the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips, said he believed that “self-regulation is the best form of regulation; provided it was fair, transparent and relatively swift”. He acknowledged that the recent reforms at the Law Society were equipping it to do a good job of performing its dual functions of regulation and representation and said that he believed that breaking down its dual roles was not in the interests of the public.
Later in the year the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, emphasised his support for the changes in hand at the Law Society, commenting that he might be prepared to “stay his hand” over the issue of whether to appoint a legal services complaints commissioner, in the light of progress in the Law Society’s performance on complaints handling.
