Monisha Shah, chair of the Legal Services Board, outlines the organisation’s changing approach and what it means for the legal sector.
It has been three months since I took up the role of Chair of the Legal Services Board, and I want to take this opportunity to share some reflections on what I have found and where we are headed.
I have been struck by the energy and commitment of the LSB team. The Board and colleagues are committed to serving the public interest, and I am proud to work alongside them. I have also been grateful for the warm welcome from people across the sector who have taken the time to meet with me, discuss key issues and opportunities, and share their views and insights. We continue to publish a list of the people I meet, and I look forward to meeting more of you.
What has become increasingly clear to me is the breadth of the LSB’s remit. Along with the frontline regulators, we operate under nine statutory regulatory objectives, covering areas such as access to justice, consumer protection, promoting competition, adherence to professional principles, and the rule of law. This is both a strength and a challenge when it comes to focus and prioritisation. It is clear to me that now is the right time for the LSB to stand back and think carefully about our priorities and where we focus our energy.
Taking stock: What we have achieved, and what has changed
The Reshaping Legal Services strategy was published in 2021. Since then, the LSB has achieved a great deal. For example, it has helped translate a complex regulatory framework into clear guidance for the regulators, including on professional ethics and the rule of law, ongoing competence, first-tier complaints, and technology and innovation.
Our State of Legal Services 2025 report identifies where progress has been made, but it also shows, strikingly, the challenges that remain.
A lot has changed since the current strategy was developed. We are several years on from the Covid-19 pandemic, AI has advanced rapidly, and the unregulated sector has grown exponentially. The impact of the Post Office Horizon scandal and the failures of Axiom Ince, SSB Law, and PM Law have reinforced the importance of effective regulatory oversight and the urgent need to keep pace with changing risks and opportunities for consumers. The environment we are working in today looks quite different from the one in which the Reshaping Legal Services strategy was designed.
A sharper regulatory focus for a changed sector
With this in mind, at our Board meeting on 9 June 2026, we agreed we would move to a new, more focused three-year strategy to cover April 2027 to March 2030.
This builds on the commitment in our current business plan to develop a three-year plan. We will develop an LSB strategy in the public interest which takes into account a changed risk landscape. We will focus more sharply on fewer but more clearly defined priorities and on the role of regulation in protecting consumers, enabling innovation, and promoting growth in the sector.
This will mean that each of the nine regulatory objectives will attract different levels of our attention over the next three years and beyond, depending on the most critical risks to address or opportunities to embrace at that time. We will consult on the draft strategy later this year.
A more targeted approach to oversight
I expect much of our energy over the coming years to be directed to regulatory oversight and ensuring the regulatory framework both protects consumers and enables innovation in the public interest.
As our Board has already agreed, rather than assessing every regulator on the same cycle by default, we will take a more dynamic and targeted approach: concentrating resources on the regulators and issues that present the greatest risks to consumers. Our approach will be risk-based, targeted, and proportionate. Regulators that perform well and present lower levels of risk will receive a lighter touch; where we have concerns, there will be more intensive scrutiny.
To underpin this, we will develop our horizon-scanning function. This is what will make our oversight genuinely forward-looking rather than reactive. The purpose of our horizon-scanning will be to identify risks to consumers and act before harm materialises. It will bring together a range of evidence – including data, stakeholder insight, and market intelligence – to build a fuller picture of the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
I am clear, and the Board is agreed, that this work should be collaborative. We must draw on intelligence from a range of sources and, just as importantly, share what we learn to support others across the sector.
Sector-wide collaborations around EDI and AI
I also want to highlight two new projects where we can make important contributions to the regulatory objectives, particularly in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and artificial intelligence (AI).
First, I have been invited to serve on the Judicial and Legal Diversity Board, co-chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Lady Chief Justice. The Board held its inaugural meeting in May, and I look forward to contributing to its work to increase diversity across the judiciary and legal professions.
Second, the LSB has joined the Government’s AI Growth Lab. This is an important development in promoting regulation which recognises the benefits of responsible AI for consumers and as a driver for economic growth. As part of this ‘advisory sandbox’, we will work alongside frontline regulators and other partners to help firms navigate practical questions around client confidentiality, data protection, explainability, and the safe use of AI.
Our recently published research shows that consumers are open to the benefits of AI, but they rightly expect appropriate safeguards and clear accountability. For those who cannot afford a lawyer, these tools offer a real route to understanding their situation and knowing what to do next. The AI Growth Lab will help providers adopt these technologies safely and responsibly, complementing our wider work to support innovation and encourage growth while ensuring that consumers remain protected, as set out in our recent AI plan.
I look forward to these collaborations and to continuing our engagement across the sector as we develop and consult on the LSB’s new three-year strategy.
About the author
Monisha Shah is the chair of the Legal Services Board. She is an experienced chair and non-executive director. She is chair of Publishers’ Licensing Services and co-chair of the Copyright Licensing Agency. She also chairs the Kings Counsel Selection Panel and serves as council member of the Advertising Standards Authority. She is a serving trustee of the Royal Collection Trust, Art Fund and chair of trustees of Caterham School. Ms Shah’s previous experience includes non-executive roles at the Office of Students, the Ofcom Content Board, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She has also served as a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, chair of Rose Bruford College and as Trustee of Wikimedia UK, Tate, National Gallery and the Foundling Museum. Her last executive role was at BBC Worldwide (now Studios), the commercial arm of the BBC.
This article was originally published by the Legal Services Board.
