Commentary on Sections Background Section 47: The Board’s power to recommend orders made under section 46
151.Section 46 allows the Lord Chancellor to make transfer arrangements by order when a body has its designation in relation to one or more reserved legal activities cancelled. The Lord Chancellor may make such an order only on the recommendation of the Board, and only in substantially the same form as recommended by the Board (section 46(7)). Section 47 sets out the procedure that the Board must follow when making a recommendation for the cancellation of an approved regulator’s designation. This procedure requires the publication of a draft recommendation and order, and that the Board take account of any representations made. It also provides for re-publication of the recommendation and order, if the Board makes any amendments which it considers material after the initial publication.
152.The purpose of section 46 is to minimise disruption to the regulation of authorised persons following the cancellation of an approved regulator’s designation. It allows for regulatory responsibility for the authorised persons concerned to be transferred to another approved regulator (assuming that the regulator in question consents to assuming such responsibility) or, where no suitable alternative approved regulator has been identified, to the Board, in its capacity as an approved regulator.
153.Where such a transfer takes place, the relevant regulated persons will be subject to the regulatory arrangements of the new regulator, or the Board, as appropriate.
154.Section 47 also allows money raised from practising fees and held by the old regulator (or a part of the money so held) to be paid to the new regulator and treated in the same way as if the money had been raised by the new regulator by way of practising fees.