The Office for Legal Complaints (OLC) has today launched a consultation on a new three-year strategy to transform the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), as demand for its service is forecast to have doubled in just three years.
The draft Strategy for 2027-30, published alongside LeO’s draft Business Plan and Budget for 2027/28, sets out plans to create a more proportionate and digitally-enabled ombudsman service, capable of responding sustainably to increasing demand.
New complaints to LeO increased by 37% in 2025/26 and are forecast to rise by a further 26% in 2026/27. LeO expects to receive more than 21,000 new complaints in 2027/28, up from 10,447 in 2024/25 – a doubling in the level of demand for its service.
With LeO’s current operating model capable of resolving 15,000 to 15,500 complaints each year, meeting rising demand sustainably requires a different approach rather than simply scaling up the existing model.
The OLC’s new strategy therefore focuses on transforming how LeO works and increasing its impact beyond individual complaint resolution. It sets three proposed strategic objectives:
Together, these will see LeO seek to resolve complaints earlier and more proportionately, make greater use of complaints data and insight to support improvements across legal services, and work with providers and regulators to address preventable causes of complaints before they reach the Ombudsman.
Ric Blakeway, Chair of the Office for Legal Complaints, said:
“The Legal Ombudsman has made significant progress and is resolving more complaints than ever before. But demand is increasing at a rate that operational improvements alone cannot sustainably address.
“The answer cannot simply be to make the existing service bigger. We need to change the way LeO works, while making much better use of what complaints can tell us about where services and complaint handling need to improve.
“By sharing more insights from its casework, supporting stronger complaint handling and working more closely with regulators and the profession, LeO can help prevent problems from escalating and contribute to greater trust and confidence in legal services.”
Plans for the first year of the strategy include beginning the transition to a redesigned service while continuing to improve LeO’s current performance. By the end of 2027/28, LeO expects that more than 70% of cases would be resolved within six months, and more than 80% within a year.
The draft Strategy and Business Plan also outline plans to strengthen LeO’s learning and insight work, including greater use of complaints data to identify root causes and emerging risks and closer intelligence-sharing with regulators to further support service providers improve their own complaint handling.
Phil Cain, Chief Ombudsman at the Legal Ombudsman, said:
“Transformation for LeO is not about processing ever-increasing numbers of complaints through the same system. It is about building a better and more sustainable service, while doing more with the insight that comes from the thousands of complaints we see.
“Complaints should be an opportunity to learn. We want to help providers resolve more problems themselves and make sure that when people do need LeO, their complaint is dealt with as early and proportionately as possible.
“We know that demand will continue to exceed the number of complaints we can resolve during this transition. We want to be transparent about that challenge. It is precisely why transformation, alongside a stronger focus on prevention, is necessary.”
The proposed operating budget for 2027/28 is £22.8 million, an increase of 6.9% on 2026/27.
The OLC is inviting stakeholders to help shape the final strategy and business plan by sharing their views on the proposals and priorities for the years ahead.
The consultation closes at midday on 23 December 2026.
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