Written question asked by Jonathan Djanogly (Conservative) on Thursday, 21 January 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 25 January 2010. It was answered by Bridget Prentice (Labour) on Thursday, 28 January 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Legal Complaints Service

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average cost to the public purse was of the consideration of a complaint by the Legal Complaints Service in each of the last five years.

Answer: The Legal Complaints Service (LCS) is wholly funded by the Law Society and not the public purse.The Legal Services Act 2007 introduces a new way of handling complaints and establishes the Office for Legal Complaints to provide a single point of entry for all service complaints about providers of regulated legal services. Under current plans, the OLC will become fully operational by the end of 2010. The set-up costs and running costs will by funded initially by the Government through grant in aid and recovered through a levy on the legal sector, so that there will be no cost to the public purse.

Secondary information