Part 5 – Miscellaneous Regulatory and investigatory powers Section 209: Regulators of legal services: objective relating to economic crime
This section inserts a new regulatory objective into section 1(1) of the Legal Services Act 2007 ("the 2007 Act") focusing on promoting the prevention and detection of economic crime.
	This new objective does not affect the right to access legal advice and representation.
	The Legal Services Board (LSB), the approved regulators and the Office for Legal Complaints are under a duty to act in a way which is compatible and most appropriate to meet this additional regulatory objective when exercising their functions.
	The section also enables the LSB to take into account regulatory action related to meeting this objective in their performance management of frontline regulators.
	"Economic crime" is defined with reference to section 193 of this Act. It includes offences listed in Schedule 11, ancillary offences, and equivalent offences overseas.
	As with the other regulatory objectives, as set out in sections 3(3)a, 28(2) and 28(3) of the 2007 Act, the LSB and approved regulators should act in a proportionate and targeted manner when discharging their functions.
	The offences that are most relevant in the context of legal sector compliance with economic crime rules include fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing and an offence under regulations made under section 1 of the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018.
	To act in a way which is compatible with the objective, the LSB and the approved regulators will need to give consideration to which of these offences their regulated communities may be exposed to, on the basis of available evidence, when exercising their functions.