Speeches by Munt.

“Yes, but your job is to regulate the regulators.”

“So what have you done? I recognise that you have only been there since January and that I am asking you to speak for your predecessor organisation and leadership, but something, I assume, was done—or was it not?”

“I have to say, I have some sympathy with Sir Ashley’s view; you are not able to flex that muscle to make changes. It is surprising to find out that 12% of firms are clearly not complying. That is a difficulty. Your organisation has stated that it is not opposed to reforming the Legal Services Act 2007, and that any fut…”

“If I can pick up on that, Anna, I think you said in 2022 that there was “an appetite” to move towards a single legal services regulator. I wonder whether you still feel that is the right way to go, and whether a single legal services regulator would be preferable to the current situation.”

“Are there any other areas of your remit where you fear you might find yourselves in the same situation going forward?”

“So you are asking them to regulate themselves. Where is your place in this? What have you spotted that you feel should be dealt with?”

“But it did not.”

“Do you feel you have the powers and expertise to influence the improvement of services? If 12% of firms are not being open and transparent, and you are asking and asking them to do so but absolutely nothing is happening, then I sense that you do not have the power, but I might be wrong.”

“Sorry to interrupt you; why not?”

“I have to say, I have some sympathy with Sir Ashley’s view; you are not able to flex that muscle to make changes. It is surprising to find out that 12% of firms are clearly not complying. That is a difficulty. Your organisation has stated that it is not opposed to reforming the Legal Services Act 2007, and that any fut…”

“If I return to my question, do you feel that the SRA has the powers and competencies that it needs to regulate new technologies? I can see that you are working on it, but do you feel you have the powers? In the long run, for us this is about access to justice. I can understand how individual firms will populate AI with…”

“You would have had discussions with the Ministry of Justice about that. Is that an open door?”

“It is not going to stop, is it? There is no end point when you are going to go, “Okay, fine. Now we need this.””

“On the subject of AI, do you feel you have the appropriate powers and competencies to regulate the new technologies and business models?”

“Thank you. I would now like to move to this: in its submission to the ongoing public bodies review of the LSB, the Legal Services Consumer Panel identified a number of consumer-facing reforms, such as meaningful quality indicators and comprehensive price transparency. Those, I understand, remain undelivered, so why is …”

“But that was clearly a four-year period of utter mayhem for everybody.”

“What had been issued by your organisation in relation to this before the High Court judgment, and what had been issued between the High Court judgment and the Court of Appeal judgment? Because we are all over the place on this, aren’t we?”

“I want to ask you about your response to the recent Court of Appeal judgment in Mazur. You said that you will “continue to hold regulators to account” to ensure that there is a clear approach across the sector to reserved legal activities. What does that mean?”

“So you are asking them to regulate themselves. Where is your place in this? What have you spotted that you feel should be dealt with?”

“Thank you. I would now like to move to this: in its submission to the ongoing public bodies review of the LSB, the Legal Services Consumer Panel identified a number of consumer-facing reforms, such as meaningful quality indicators and comprehensive price transparency. Those, I understand, remain undelivered, so why is …”