Legal Services Bill [HL]

I am most grateful to the Minister. I would only suggest that if, in the tranquil days that she will enjoy after today’s proceedings, she were to look at this debate, it would strike her most forcefully that the Government must address the definition of the consumer in considering what to do about this amendment. My noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern, in a characteristically apposite intervention, put it to the Minister that the amendment was a long way away from imposing an overarching obligation on the licensing authority. I invite the noble Baroness to look again at the wording of the amendment, which requires, "““the licensing authority to consider the likely impact of a proposed application on access to justice””." That is all. It requires the licensing authority to take account of the effect that a proposed ABS would have on access to justice. It in no way seeks to undermine or displace the regulatory objectives under Clause 1(1). Access to justice is one of those regulatory objectives, but once this analysis has been carried out it will be placed in the context of all the other six. In my submission the notion that the amendment in some way imposes an overarching obligation is misplaced. Is the noble Baroness really suggesting that there are circumstances in which access to justice would not be part of an analysis by a licensing authority when considering the establishment of the ABS? Is the noble Baroness seriously considering that a licensing authority might not take access to justice into account and not do an appropriate analysis of the impact on access to justice if it was faced with an application for an ABS? I see that the noble Baroness shakes her head.