Legal Services Bill [HL]

So do I. I also strongly support the words of my noble friend. I know that we have debated this already and that reference has been made to the positions of the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State under this Bill. We are in something of a quandary, because when we have a Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for the operation of the legal system and is required, under his oath of office, to respect the rule of law, we have confidence that the occupant of that post will follow the example of his learned predecessors and maintain the independence of the legal profession and all theother values that we have talked about in today’s debates. The transition from a Lord Chancellor to a Secretary of State is an uncomfortable one. This Bill refers only to a Secretary of State, who could be any of the Secretaries of State. We are filled with nervousness about the transitional period. That is why I amvery grateful to the noble Lords for tabling thisseries of amendments and to my noble friend forhis amendment—Amendment No. 36, I believe. Responsibilities could be transferred to a Minister whose other departmental responsibilities would cause him or her to give less weight to the importance of maintaining an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession. That is where we are all coming from. These are not great party-political issues—far from it. We are united in wanting to see reform of the legal profession that maintains all the very high standards that we have been so proud of. We want to continue being proud of the international standing of the legal profession of England and Wales. As I understand it, responsibility for these issues currently rests with the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, rather than with the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor, as a result of a transfer of functions order, made shortly after that initial decision to abolish the post of Lord Chancellor, which was then reversed. At the time—and I am not criticising anybody in this House—the issues raised by that transfer of responsibility were not properly considered, either publicly or in Parliament. Ensuring that the functions rest with the Lord Chancellor would help significantly to demonstrate to sophisticated international audiences that the new structure for regulation of legal services does not open the legal profession to political control. That, in essence, is what we are talking about: political control from a government Minister. The fact that the Lord Chancellor is required, under his oath of office, to respect the rule of law, would reinforce that. If the Bill were to be amended along the lines suggested, it would also be desirable to ensure that the position could not subsequently be changed by a transfer of functions order. This could be done by excluding the functions concerned from the permitted scope of orders under the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975, in much the same way as was done in respect of the Lord Chancellor’s functions relating to the judiciary in the Constitutional Reform Act. I very much hope that the Minister might reflect on that. I note that the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill refers only to the Lord Chancellor. It would be very helpful if the noble Baroness could explain why that Bill differs so fundamentally from this Bill, which refers to the Secretary of State.