Preferred candidate for Chair of the Legal Services Board
Minister Sackman has confirmed Monisha Shah is the preferred candidate for the role of Chair of the Legal Services Board.
The Legal Services Board (LSB) is the oversight regulator for legal services in England and Wales. It oversees eight regulatory bodies who carry out the day-to-day frontline regulation of legal services. It also has responsibilities in relation to the Office for Legal Complaints, which is responsible for administering the Legal Ombudsman scheme, and the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The LSB is independent from both the legal profession and government and operates within a statutory framework set out in the Legal Services Act 2007.
Monisha Shah has been selected as the preferred candidate for the role of LSB Chair following a rigorous assessment process conducted in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.
The role is subject to pre-appointment hearing by the Justice Select Committee. Pre-appointment scrutiny is an important part of the appointment process for some of the most significant public appointments made by Ministers. It is designed to provide an added level of scrutiny to the appointment process. Pre-appointment hearings are held in public and allow a Select Committee to take evidence before a candidate is appointed. Ministers consider the Committee’s views before deciding whether to proceed with the appointment.
Biography
Ms Shah is an experienced chair and non-executive director. She is chair of Publishers’ Licensing Services and co-chair of the Copyright Licensing Agency. She also chairs the Kings Counsel Selection Panel and serves as council member of the Advertising Standards Authority. She is a serving trustee of the Royal Collection Trust, Art Fund and chair of trustees of Caterham School. Ms Shah’s previous experience includes non-executive roles at the Office of Students, the Ofcom Content Board, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She has also served as a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, chair of Rose Bruford College and as Trustee of Wikimedia UK, Tate, National Gallery and the Foundling Museum. Her last executive role was at BBC Worldwide (now Studios), the commercial arm of the BBC.