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The Legal Services Board is to be slimmed down, and variable length terms introduced, after most of its members were reappointed. Chairman David Edmonds said he believed “we can operate at the same high level with a smaller board”.

One benefit, such as it is, of being a self-confessed legal regulation nerd is that I was invited to attend a Legal Services Board/Legal Services Institute discussion on reserved legal activities the other week. It wasn’t entirely clear whether I was there as a journalist or simply as someone who has shown more interest in the topic than is strictly healthy. The event was part of the early stages of the LSB’s major project to rationalise the scope of regulation.

Put six lawyers in a room and you may well get nine different points of view on referral fees. But could the end be nigh for this fierce debate, which has split the profession asunder for many years? As the Legal Services Board recognised in its decision last week – and secretly probably hopes – the advent of alternative business structures could render the issue irrelevant.

There should be no general ban on referral fees, but individual frontline regulators are free to impose one for their part of the legal market if they can justify it, the Legal Services Board has concluded. It said transparency needs improving but there is little evidence of “actual or potential harm”.

The Bar Standards Board has approved the latest version of guidance on “signposting” requirements to notify lay clients of their rights to complain about poor service. It hopes the new formula will satisfy both disgruntled barristers and the Legal Services Board.