Chris Grayling, Lord Chancellor, has rejected the Legal Services Board’s (LSB) recommendation that will-writing activities be regulated.
The LSB made the recommendation in February, after conducting a two-year study which uncovered evidence of poor practice. However, Grayling said in a statement this week that,
while the report indicated “consumer detriment” in the market and that reservation of will writing could address this, it did not adequately demonstrate that reservation was the “best solution” or that alternative measures had been exhausted.
Grayling suggests instead more targeted guidance for the legal profession and strengthening existing regulation along with voluntary regulation schemes and codes of practice, as well as “greater efforts made to educate consumers” about the different types of providers.
David Edmonds, LSB chairman, says: “Naturally, we are disappointed by the government’s decision. However, it is their decision alone to make and we will study the details and respond in due course. The onus is now on both regulated and unregulated providers of will-writing services to improve standards and thereby earn consumer and public confidence.”
Paul Sharpe, chairman of the Institute of Professional Willwriters, says: “While we are astonished by the outcome, once it was found that existing regulated providers were just as bad at writing wills as unregulated providers, the Lord Chancellor was going to find it difficult to approve reservation as a solution.
“I can’t see any of the suggestions offered by the Lord Chancellor changing anything in the will-writing market. That is why mandatory regulatory schemes were, and still are, essential in the will-writing sector.”
