Legal Services Bill [HL]

On the basis of what I have already said about the acceptance of Amendment No. 38 and the force of the consultation with the professional bodies, I am leaving the OLC to set out how it proposes to operate. I have also made it perfectly clear that the framing of the legislation recognises the genuine concerns of either vexatious complaints or an understanding that there will be different circumstances in which different charges should be made. I am not prepared to accept a position where only if a complaint is upheld would one have to pay, for the reasons that I have already given. We believe that that combination of finance—the general levy combined with what has been proposed for complaints that reach the OLC—is right. Very importantly, it does not seek to do other than understand and accept that the reason we need this flexibility is precisely because we want the OLC to be able to say, ““In these circumstances we completely waive the charge, refund it, or set it at a much lower level””. It is precisely to do that; that is very important. As I have indicated, if the only way in which the body could get the additional income was to find against a respondent, it would then be open to the charge—I do not suggest that it would do it—that it was in its interests to find against people, and we do not want to be in that position.