Section 83: Licensing rules
206.This section requires the Board, acting in its capacity as a licensing authority, to make suitable licensing rules (which mean suitable regulatory arrangements as defined in Schedule 12) within a period of 12 months from a decision of the Board under Schedule 12 that a licensable body is entitled to apply to it for a licence. Under Schedule 12, such a decision would be made because no other approved regulator has suitable regulatory arrangements in relation to the body in question, or in the case of certain non-commercial bodies (as listed in sub-paragraph (6) of paragraph 1 of Schedule 12), no other approved regulator is prepared to offer appropriate terms. Those rules must be made or modified by the Board acting as licensing authority, with the approval of the Board acting in its capacity as oversight regulator rather than licensing authority or approved regulator. Section 83(3) provides that licensing rules made by an approved regulator only have effect while that regulator is also a licensing authority. Section 83(4) defines licensing rules. Section 83(5) details the provisions that must be contained in licensing rules, including conduct, discipline and practice rules; appropriate provision requiring the licensing authority to take account of the objective of improving access to justice of a proposed application for a licence; the regulatory conflict provisions of sections 52 and 54; and the complaint handling provisions of sections 112 and 145. Section 83(7) introduces Schedule 11, which makes further provision as to licensing rules. Sections 83(8) and 83(9) provide that the licensing rule requirements in section 83(5) and Schedule 11 are subject to sections 105 and 106, which make special provision in relation to trade unions and other special bodies.
207.Schedule 11 describes licensing rules in detail. It has four parts, dealing with licensing procedure, the structural requirements of licensed bodies, the practice requirements of those bodies, and their regulation. Decisions about individual licences are taken by licensing authorities without reference to the Board or the Lord Chancellor.
208.Part 1 of this Schedule outlines licensing procedures.
209.Section 84 (described below) sets out the basic conditions for the way licensing authorities must deal with applications for licences. Part 1 of the Schedule makes detailed provision about licensing decisions. Under paragraphs 1 to 6 licensing rules must include provision about how an application for a licence, or for the modification of a licence, should be made, and they may include provision as to the period for which a licence is to remain in force and the renewal of licences.
210.Paragraphs 7 and 8 make provision in similar terms to that described above in relation to applications under section 106, which deals with the power to modify the application of licensing rules to the special bodies detailed in section 106. In particular, licensing rules must make provision obliging a special body to notify the licensing authority where it becomes a different kind of special body or ceases to be a special body, within 30 days or a longer period provided for in the licensing rules.
211.Part 2 of the Schedule outlines the three basic structural requirements that must be covered in the licensing rules. Paragraphs 9 and 10 require all licensed bodies to have at least one manager who is an authorised person, who can be either an individual or an entity (which is not a licensed body); prohibit a licensed body having a manager who is disqualified (provision about disqualification can be found in section 99); permit licensing rules to be made about managers; and prohibit licensing rules from specifying that all the managers must be authorised persons.
212.Paragraphs 11 and 12 require licensing rules to provide that licensed bodies must also have a designated Head of Legal Practice (HoLP) who is approved by the licensing authority, is an authorised person and not disqualified. Under sub-paragraph (4) of paragraph 11, a HoLP may be approved only if the person is fit and proper to undertake the duties set out in section 91. Paragraph 12 requires provision in the rules about the procedures and criteria that the licensing authority will apply in determining whether a person is fit and proper, and in determining whether to withdraw its approval of the person as fit and proper. It also requires that licensing authorities make provision for review of these decisions. Paragraph 12 also allows the rules to suspend the requirement to have a HoLP for a specified period, so long as the licensed body complies with other requirements set out in the rules.
213.Paragraphs 13 and 14 make similar provision in relation to the requirement to have a designated Head of Finance & Administration (“HoFA”) approved by the licensing authority.
214.Part 3 of the Schedule outlines practice requirements. Licensing rules must cover four basic practice requirements:
under paragraph 15 a licensed body that is not a company or limited liability partnership with its registered office in England or Wales must have a practising address which is a place in England & Wales where the body carries out some or all of the reserved legal activities for which it is licensed;
under paragraph 16 licensed activities may be carried on only by or under the supervision of entitled persons;
under paragraph 18 disqualified persons may not work in licensed bodies as employees or officers; and
under paragraph 20 clients’ money must be accounted for.
215.Paragraph 17 requires licensing rules to require licensed bodies to have suitable arrangements in place to ensure that:
they, and their managers and employees, comply with the duties in section 176,
they, and such of their managers and employees as are authorised persons, maintain the professional principles set out in section 1; and
non-authorised persons subject to the duty in section 90 comply with it.
216.Paragraph 19 provides that for the purpose of giving effect to indemnity and compensation arrangements, licensing rules may make provision authorising or requiring funds to be maintained by the licensing authority, insurance to be taken out by the licensing authority, or insurance to be taken out by licensed bodies.
217.Under paragraph 21 of the Schedule, all licensed bodies must pay periodic licensing fees, although different fees can be set for different kinds of body.
218.Part 4 of the Schedule covers a number of areas of regulation of licensed bodies. Descriptions of the various paragraphs in this Part are included within the sections to which they relate.
