Legal Services Bill [HL]

I strongly support the noble Lord in opposing the question whether Clause 1 stand part of the Bill and on his Amendment No. 3A, of which he has given us a feel. In our Joint Committee—the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen, may correct me if I am wrong—we did not quite appreciate that Clause 1 would apply not only to the Legal Services Board and the Office for Legal Complaints, but also to the approved authorised regulators. I can therefore see that we would have liked to spend a little more time on this area. As my noble friend Lord Kingsland pointed out, similar bodies being set up have carefully defined objectives. My main concern with these regulatory objectives is that there is a great deal about what the bodies are to do but very little about what they should not do. Duties are a very useful way of setting out exactly what we expect of a body. I look forward very much to some more detailed amendments, perhaps on Report, but in the mean time we seek an indication from the Minister that she is prepared to look at this, just to ensure that when we create these bodies we give them carefully defined terms of reference. We will debate in greater detail later amendments setting out the need to avoid overlap between the approved regulators and the Legal Services Board and the need to act in partnership. I am persuaded by my noble friend that we ought to look at setting out very carefully, succinctly and in exact terms what we expect of these bodies. We will expect different things from each body. The Legal Services Board is seen as the overarching regulator, but the detail is left to the front-line regulators. The Office for Legal Complaints has a completely different persona; we want it to sort out complaints and ensure that those who wish to complain are treated quickly, promptly and efficiently. There is a need for that; indeed, some would say that the main reason for the Bill, apart from the original OFT report, was that the area of complaints had a cloud hanging over it. Without ascribing blame to anyone, I suggest that there was a feeling that the whole business was not being dealt with as efficiently as possible. However, I am not sure that the Office for Legal Complaints will have the same regulatory objectives, duties and powers that we will give the Legal Services Board, or equally the same as those we would want the approved regulators to have. My noble friend is doing us all a great service and has spotted something that, in our rush to complete and deliver our report, the Joint Committee omitted to notice. We should have spent more time on it; thanks to my noble friend we will now be able to do so.