OLC publishes 2025/26 Business Plan for the Legal Ombudsman

The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) has today published its 2025/26 Business Plan and Budget for the Legal Ombudsman. 

The plans for 2025/26 mark the second year of the OLC’s strategy for 2024-27 and continue to focus on achieving further steps towards completing LeO’s transformation. 

Taking the two core objectives of service and impact, the budget for 2025/26 recognises the demand challenges LeO is facing and the importance of investing to continue reducing a historic backlog, and to ensure resources and efficiencies prevent a backlog arising again. 

The plans also reflect the OLC’s ambition for LeO to continue building its impact in the legal services sector, by sharing more of its unique insight to help prevent legal complaints arising and to improve complaint handling when things do go wrong. 

In 2025/26 LeO will: 

• Respond to growing levels of demand by responding to 120,000 new contacts and resolving nearly 9,000 complaints. 
• Increase its investigator resource to continue reducing the queue of people waiting for an investigation and to reduce customer waiting times. 
• Identify and assess areas of its operational process where AI and technology can be implemented to drive further efficiencies. 
• Provide tailored support and accessible learning and insights that help manage specific drivers of demand. 
• Enhance the transparency of its casework, by publishing high-impact public interest decisions and significantly expanding its case study library. 
• Work with the sector and regulators to develop and launch a model complaints handling code and procedure – and emphasise the commitment needed in delivering a cultural shift in legal complaint handling. 
• Identify and implement a revised case fee that strikes a balance between reflecting inflationary increases over the last 14 years and recognising other competing priorities. 

OLC Chair Elisabeth Davies said: 

“The progress LeO made in 2024/25 speaks to the hard work and commitment of everyone at LeO but also the continued recognition that consumers and legal providers should have confidence that when something goes wrong, the matter can be resolved fairly and as quickly as possible. As we move into the second year of the OLC’s 2024-27 Strategy for LeO, the plans for the coming year will help build on the transformation that has already been made and ensure LeO continues to deliver as a modern ombudsman service.” 

Chief Ombudsman Paul McFadden said: 

“Over the last few years, LeO has already demonstrated a significant step-change to the service it delivers. LeO’s operating model is fundamentally sustainable and continues to meet growing demand on an annual basis – but the overall picture of demand from the sector is something that needs to be addressed. 

Our Business Plan for 2025/26 is built not only to respond to the growing number of complaints LeO is seeing, but also to increase the range of valuable learning and insight we deliver – to drive improvements to service and complaints handling across the sector, and ultimately help reduce the need for LeO intervention.” 

Notes 

About the Legal Ombudsman  

The Legal Services Act 2007 (the Act) established the Legal Ombudsman scheme (LeO) and the Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) to administer it. The Act also established the Legal Services Board (LSB) to oversee the regulation of the legal profession in England and Wales. LeO’s work supports and aligns with the regulatory objectives.  

LeO has two core roles. It resolves complaints about providers of legal services that haven’t been resolved to customers’ satisfaction – as quickly and informally as possible. LeO covers the majority of legal services provided in England and Wales. The rules and limits about what complaints LeO can help with are set out on LeO’s website. 
 
The second vital part of LeO’s work is sharing learning and insight from the complaints it sees. This promotes better complaint handling, prevents future complaints and helps drive higher standards in legal services.   

About the 2025/26 Business Plan 

The Office for Legal Complaints is now in the second year of its 2024-27 strategy. The 2025/26 Business Plan and Budget for the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) will run from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.  

Before and alongside the formal public consultation period, the OLC and LeO have engaged with a wide range of people and organisations with an interest in LeO’s work – including LeO’s staff, the Legal Services Board, the Legal Services Consumer Panel, the approved regulators, professional bodies, legal service providers and representatives of the consumer advice sector.