Legal Services Bill [HL]

I understand fullywhat the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, has in mind and the difficulties that the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, envisages in a pilot scheme. It occurred to me as these observations were being made that, if a novel type of organisation or business structure was proposed, it might be licensed for a given time to see what effect, if any, it would have, if it were not possible to be definite about that in advance. Looking at the licensing provisions, I am not certain that a licence for a fixed term is clearly within the powers of the licensing authorities. No doubt, however, if it were thought desirable, that could be made clear. I can understand that those applying for a licence might not be anxious to set up an organisation for too short a time. If they were confident that it would be all right, they might be rather put off by the idea that it was for a limited term. On the other hand, if you are not sure what will happen, it is wise to have some way to put something right that, it emerges, does not seem to be going right. That occurred to me as a possible approach—I do not put it more strongly than that—where a particularly novel type of business structure is proposed.