Commentary on Sections Section 5: The Levy
Section 5 sets out the requirement for a levy to be applied to the relevant professional bodies in order to fund the office of the Legal Services Oversight Commissioner. The apportionment of the levy will be a matter for further discussion with the professional bodies and the detail of the levy will be met by subsequent regulations.
Subsection (1) requires the Department of Finance and Personnel to make regulations providing for the levy and Subsection (2) provides that the levy is payable to the Commissioner.
Subsection (3) requires the Department to ensure that the levy is fairly apportioned between the professional bodies and Subsection (4) requires any regulations made in relation to the levy to be laid before and approved by the Assembly.