Legal Services Bill [HL]

I support the amendment, at least as a very careful probing amendment. There seems to be a great deal of force in the suggestion that this should be an independent appointment, similar to those applying to district judges, which is after all a very important role but not the highest rank of the judiciary. The principle should certainly apply to members of this board. I would be grateful if the Minister could explain the difference here between the Secretary of State and the Lord Chancellor. As a Minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, she probably understands that a great deal better than me and probably better than one or two other people. We know that ““Secretary of State””, when it appears in a Bill, can mean any Secretary of State. It is obviously deeply undesirable that the board that regulates the independent legal professions should be appointed by a Minister such as the Home Secretary, who has such plain conflicts of interest. I do not anticipate that the Government would be likely to move the position in practice so that the Home Secretary could do that, but some Government could do it, and I can quite easily hear such a Government saying that Parliament had approved it because it simply required a Secretary of State to do it. That is another reason for moving away from that wording. Assuming that the ““Secretary of State”” in the mind of the Government—and the Minister will confirm this or not—is meant to refer to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, how do that department, the Minister, or the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor, see his functions as Lord Chancellor as compared to his functions as Secretary of State? It may be that it is already on the record, and that I am just ignorant. I look forward, if it is on the record, to having my attention drawn to it, and if it is not, to hearing it expounded by the Minister.