Legal Services Bill [HL]

We have in a sense partly had this debate. I apologise that I cut off the noble and learned Baroness in her prime, but I was trying not to deal with amendments out of synchronisation, as it were. I have thought about this. I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, will not mind my saying that the Joint Committee raised this question in its report on the Bill. We said in response that the LSB should exercise its powers only where approved regulators are clearly failing. While we made it clear that the LSB would need to establish detailed rules providing for the use of each of its powers, we confirmed that it was considering whether the Bill needed to include thresholds. We have looked very carefully at the proposals for the words ““serious”” or ““significant””, and discussed these with both our own lawyers and parliamentary counsel. The difficulty we have is that these are tests that would have to be tested in a sense. One can think of circumstances where a very small number of people might be badly affected by a measure. The matter of whether that was significant or serious would be called into question. I am concerned that we should not put ourselves in the position of having to test what we mean by the provision. As the Bill is drafted, the board will be able to exercise a power provided it is appropriate to do so, as it is possible to prove with the test that there has been an adverse impact on one or more of the functions. In doing that the board must have regard to the principles that regulatory activities should be transparent, accountable, proportionate, consistent and targeted only at cases where action is needed. These ensure that the board will exercise its powers only where it is appropriate to do so and will further ensure that when it does so the board will be fully and publicly accountable. Judicial review will also be available. The safeguards lie in the powers themselves. For example, I refer to the requirement that the board has to be satisfied that in all the circumstances of the case it is appropriate to take a course of action. I refer also to the right of approved regulators to make representations. The legislation contains clear safeguards. It has clearly established rules on the use of powers that will enable us to get this matter right. Including the words ““significant”” or ““serious”” would impose difficulties in how one interprets that and whether eventually one would need to interpret it through the court.