Legal Services Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may, having served as a Member of Parliament for a rural area for a number of years, add my support to this amendment and, indeed, echo the words of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford and others about the importance of having something like this amendment in statutory form to ensure that rural areas have proper legal services. My experience over 14 years as a Member of Parliament for a rural Welsh seat until 1997 included the observation of a contraction in the service provided by firms of solicitors. One reason for that contraction was the advent of franchising and similar arrangements in civil cases. I am not sure that this is right now, but until very recently only one solicitor in the whole of north Wales and mid-Wales was franchised to carry out litigation for claimants in clinical negligence cases. That made it very difficult for those of us who were trying to help people to obtain good-quality legal advice without travelling very large distances to do so. It became a significant problem. One of the effects of the Carter proposals will inevitably be a contraction in the number of firms carrying out criminal work, in particular in rural areas such as mid-Wales where the critical mass of work is small and cross-subsidies have always kept firms going. Another observation that I made during my years as a Member of the other place, which I understand is borne out today, is that large organisations, claims farming firms and others that are interested in doing work on a very large scale have no incentive to work in rural areas. It is extremely expensive for them to advise people in rural areas. The result for potential litigants is that the best that they can hope for is litigation through questionnaires and occasional telephone calls, which are often from people who are business oriented and not qualified to advise them on the legal issues concerned. There is a great deal of nervousness in rural areas—the situation in north Wales and mid-Wales is replicated in North Yorkshire, Cumbria and many rural parts of the country—about the effect of liberalisation of the market. One is not against liberalisation in itself, but some protection for rural areas is as justified in this sphere as in any other.