Mark Tami – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Tami on 2014-06-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Decision Notice of 14 May 2013 on the extension of the reserved legal activities, what discussions he has had with the will writing industry on strengthening existing regulation of authorised persons in this area.

Mr Shailesh Vara

In the Lord Chancellor’s Decision Notice of 14 May 2013, as well as confirming that he had decided not to make will writing a reserved legal activity, he indicated that further efforts should be made to see if alternatives to regulation could be made more effective in improving standards in relation to will writing.

Since then, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has taken a number of steps, with the intention of encouraging and supporting measures to improve standards, in both the regulated and unregulated legal service sectors.

In relation to the regulated sector, the LSB has written to the approved regulators, to encourage them to take steps to address concerns about the quality of will writing by authorised persons. In May 2014, the Solicitors Regulation Authority issued guidance for solicitors on will-writing.

In relation to the unregulated sector, the LSB convened a roundtable with industry stakeholders, including leading will writing trade bodies, in January 2014, to explore ways to improve the coverage and effectiveness of voluntary schemes and codes. At this roundtable, the LSB and stakeholders also discussed how to improve consumer information, to better educate consumers about the differences between regulated and unregulated will providers, and related protections and redress routes.