Speeches by Munt.

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

“It probably is.”

“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 …”

“Good afternoon. My name is Tessa Munt. I am the Member of Parliament for Wells and Mendip Hills. I am also a director and a vice-chair of WhistleblowersUK, which is a not-for-profit organisation, and vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on penal affairs.”

“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?”

“It was 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.”

“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?”

“My constituent Michael is autistic and actively psychotic, and he has a confirmed lack of capacity. His parents have power of attorney. His chronic medical problems include cysts deep in his chest that could burst at any time, bowel disease, myopathy and sleep apnoea. His family contacts me with increasing distress as …”

“Are there any other skills, experience or knowledge that you bring? As you mentioned, you were a media professional, effectively, and you had an interest in the creative industries and in education. Is there anything there that you think will add to your ability to function as Chair of this organisation?”

“I do not want to sound rude, but may I ask what skills and experiences you have that enable you to execute those functions?”

“Thank you. Just for the record, I am surprised that no one from the Legal Services Board was involved in the interview process.”

“They would have an idea.”

“Bearing in mind that there has been criticism of the light-touch approach to assessment—the Bar Standards Board and the Solicitors Regulation Authority were found to have “failed to demonstrate that they met the required standards in important areas”—did you raise those questions during your interviews? In your situati…”

“Good morning. My name is Tessa Munt. I am the Member of Parliament for Wells and Mendip Hills in Somerset. I am the one who is not a lawyer. Everything is in my declarations in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, but I will just say that I am vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on penal affairs, a…”

“As an addendum to that, it has been criticised for having a light touch, hasn’t it? I just wonder what your comments on that might be.”

“Do you have some idea of the specific challenges faced by the LSB right now?”

“Can you explain the approach that you believe the Legal Services Board takes to assessing the performance of regulators? Have you some insight into that?”

“The LSB has a number of responsibilities, which include oversight of the regulators, taking enforcement action and promoting the regulatory objectives, but I believe it has fewer than 50 staff. Are you confident that the organisation can deal with its competing priorities with that number of staff?”