Our fourth Board meeting of the year took place online on Tuesday 14 July 2026. The Board minutes will be published on our website in the usual way, but in the meantime, here are a few of the highlights.
Mazur Lessons Learned Exercise: we considered the report that we commissioned in May to look at the lessons arising from the huge new demand for practice rights following the Mazur judgment. The report is the product of extensive internal and applicant feedback. The report recognised CRL’s ability to expand operational capacity to handle a tenfold increase in applications enabling over 1000 Chartered Legal Executives to gain new practice rights. Equally we recognised that at a time of significant uncertainty for many hard-working professionals, we had not been as responsive or consumer facing as we would have wished, and that there were significant limitations in some of our operational processes. The Board welcomed the honest appraisal of performance, agreed we should publish the report in full, and committed to an action plan to address the weaknesses identified. Further details will be shared at our Member Webinar on 21 July 2026.
Operations: we noted that post Mazur many CLEs continue to face problems in practice. We looked in particular at issues with those working in the Court of Protection, which litigation and advocacy practice rights are most suitable for their roles, and what activities can be undertaken by Probate Practitioners. We agreed to continue to work to address these difficulties in cooperation with CILEX, the Court of Protection and those affected. We also looked at our digital transformation plans, which will support improvements to our operational performance.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD): we received our annual report sampling members compliance with CPD requirements. We were pleased to see that over 94% of those sampled were compliant, a slight improvement on last year. We will publish this report shortly and will also be considering future CPD content requirements as part of our work on ongoing competence in relation to professional ethics.
Practising Certificate Fee: we approved the final budget for 2027 prior to issuing a consultation document on the Practising Certificate Fee later this month. Key factors that have informed the 2027 budget include:
- improving user experience and addressing the areas for improvement identified through the Mazur lessons learnt review and recent stakeholder perception survey,
- the need for significant investment in systems and processes after a long period of uncertainty about our future.
- the extra costs of responding to the Mazur judgment and ensuring the costs of our application and assessment processes are adequately covered; and
- to ensure we are adequately resourced to deliver the regulatory objectives and expectations placed on regulators by the LSB, including maintaining sufficient reserves.
In setting CRL’s budget, equally we are very conscious of the difficult economic environment facing many in the profession.
Strategy: we also had a full debate on future strategy. Jennifer Coupland, the CILEX CEO, presented on the CILEX Strategy 2027-31 launched the same day. We welcomed the commitment to working together on areas like simplifying member grades, titles and qualifications and agreed to continue the process of closer collaboration. We also welcomed the independent review of the LSB published the previous day and looked forward to the new ways of working foreshadowed. We will in turn continue to press for a fundamental review of the 2007 Legal Services Act to better reflect the way legal services are now delivered, and to focus on risk not title. Finally, we agreed that we needed to streamline and update our own enforcement rules to ensure they remain fit for purpose and continue to deliver effective consumer protection. We will be publishing a consultation document with our proposals in the next few weeks.
Next Meeting: Our next Board meeting is on 17 September 206. As always if you want to know more, please look at our website, read our Board papers or get in touch.
Next Meeting: If you would like to know more please access our website, read our Board papers or get in touch.
