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OFT responds to Lord Chancellor's paper on legal profession

21 November 2002

The OFT has today responded to the Lord Chancellor's Department on its consultation paper, In the Public Interest?, about matters falling to the Government that arise from the OFT's report Competition in Professions.
Download our response in pdf format (35 kb)

The response reaffirms the OFT's view set out in its report that the professions, including the legal profession, should be fully subject to competition law and that any unjustified restrictions on competition should be removed. Such restrictions may arise from professional rules and from legislation or other matters falling to the Government.

Among the issues highlighted within the response as concerns which may work against competition are:

• legislative restrictions impeding the creation of new forms of business to provide legal services (e.g. through multi-disciplinary partnerships (MDPs)
• the QC system, which may still operate to distort competition by Government giving selected barristers a privileged title. The response questions the operation of this system as a valid quality mark of benefit to consumers.

NOTES

1. The LCD consultation paper, In the Public Interest?, was published in July 2002. It was aimed at both professionals and members of the public in England and Wales and asked for responses to various questions on the OFT's recommendations in 'Competition in Professions' on matters falling to the Government, including conveyancing, probate, MDP and employed solicitors, legal professional privilege and the QC system.

2. The OFT's Competition in Professions (pdf file, 867 kb) was issued in March 2001 and was followed by a progress statement in April this year (press notice 21/02).

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