Legal Services Bill [HL]

Yes it is, my Lords, but it is still a power to modify any Act of Parliament or enactment, including any future Act. I have drawn this to the attention of the chairman of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart; as I have mentioned to him, I cannot think of anyone better to deal with such an issue. I hope that the committee will carefully consider the extent to which these powers are being sought. We will want to raise these and other points in Committee. We all accept that the Bill is necessary. It was originally prompted by concerns over the complaints procedures but now we have a far broader Bill. We inevitably have a serious responsibility to ensure that this much larger Bill will not make things worse or have unintended consequences. The crucial matter is how to safeguard and entrench the independence of the legal profession. If we fail, the effects will be felt far beyond these shores. If protectionist-minded lawyers elsewhere are able to argue that our profession has become little more than an adjunct of Government, they will be able to force shut the door for our lawyers, which would be highly undesirable. This is all about balance; it would be quite wrong—indefensible, even—to establish an appointments process so self-evidently lacking in checks and balances. The Legal Services Board must not only be independent, it must be seen to be independent. Sir David Clementi made this one of the key points in his excellent report. I have to say in support of the noble Lord, Lord Bach, that the Select Committee sought to ““Clementi-ise”” the Bill because we agreed with so much of Sir David’s report, particularly where the Government had departed from the original recommendations. Sir David said: "““Given the need for independence, and the objective of the rule of law, it seems right that the judiciary should be involved in the appointment … The proposal of this Review is that the appointment of the Chairman and Chief Executive should be made by the Secretary of State in consultation with a senior member of the judiciary””." The noble Lord, Lord Bach, moved an amendment to the original report which stated that provision should be made for the Secretary of State to make the appointment in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice. That very much follows what Sir David recommended. I hope that the Government will think again on that issue. Another key issue is that the Government are always looking for ways in which they can exercise more power and control. The noble and learned Lord shakes his head. When I had the privilege of serving in government, I found that tendency from time to time, but of course I resisted it; the noble and learned Lord has not done so. In the draft Bill with which members of the Select Committee were presented, there were 111 references, not to the Lord Chancellor, but to the Secretary of State—any Secretary of State. So the noble and learned Lord can imagine the enthusiasm with which I made the same check in the new Bill, which is not much longer but has been split into two volumes. By how much had he reduced the number of references to power for himself from 111? The result of my word-count—I have since cleared this with all sorts of more technical people—showed that the number of references to the Secretary of State had increased from 111 to 288.