Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 8: 8: Schedule 1 , page 112, line 12, leave out sub-paragraph (3) The noble Lord said: Amendment No. 8 refers to a line in Volume II of the Bill, on page 112, where it refers to the powers of the Secretary of State to determine the size of the Legal Services Board. Paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 1 states: "““The Secretary of State may by order amend sub-paragraph (1) by substituting for the limit on the maximum number of persons for the time being specified in paragraph (c) of that sub-paragraph a different limit””." On the face of it, this is a quite extraordinary provision, because it suggests that, by what I understand to be a negative order, the Secretary of State can expand or contract the size of the board. It must be perfectly clear to the Minister as to the scope that that might give to a Secretary of State for manipulating the size of the board and therefore producing decisions from the board that would be different from those produced by a board differently constituted. The Minister may have a benign explanation for this measure; I cannot anticipate what she is going to say. But if the power is unconstrained, as it appears to be, I suggest that it is wholly inappropriate. We would certainly, on Report, in the absence of any explanation or offer to constrain the power in some way, want to remove it from the Bill. I beg to move.