§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to review the supervision of complaints against solicitors by the OSS. [74748]
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§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS), the Law Society's complaints handling wing, is already subject to independent scrutiny by the Legal Services Ombudsman. The Lord Chancellor has no current plans to instigate a further review of complaints handling, however he has warned the OSS that unless swift and substantive improvements are made across the board, he will not hesitate to implement his reserve powers which allow for the establishment of a Legal Services Complaints Commissioner. In addition, he has announced recently a review of the framework for regulating legal services. The first step in the review will be to decide what it should cover in terms of services and providers and what issues it should address.