Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 150: 150: Schedule 16, page 232, line 18, leave out paragraph 43 and insert— ““43 After that section insert— ““46A Funding of the Tribunal (1) The Tribunal must submit to the Society and the Legal Services Board in respect of each year a budget for the year. (2) A budget for the year is a statement of the amount of money which the Tribunal estimates is required to enable it to meet all of its expenditure in that year (having regard to any amounts received but not spent in previous years). (3) The amount budgeted shall be appropriately allocated to each solicitor applying for a practising certificate and shall be collected by the Society on behalf of the Tribunal and the Tribunal may procure that its administration is conducted through a company limited by guarantee or other body controlled by it. (4) If the amount sought by the Tribunal is in excess of the previous year’s budget by more than 5 per cent such increase over 5 per cent shall require the approval of the Legal Services Board after consultation with the Society and the Tribunal. (5) Pending such approval as is required by subsection (4), the amount of the previous year’s budgeted amount shall be payable in accordance with subsection (6). (6) Subject to subsection (5), the amount specified in a budget submitted under subsection (1) shall be received by the Society as agent for the Tribunal and must be paid by the Society to the Tribunal— (a) in such instalments and at such times as may be agreed between the Society and the Tribunal; or (b) in the absence of such agreement before the beginning of the year to which the budget relates. (7) The Society may pay the Tribunal such other amounts as the Society considers appropriate. (8) In this section ““year”” means a calendar year.”””” The noble Lord said: The purpose of Amendment No. 150 is to ensure that the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal will have full administrative independence from the Law Society. We are concerned that the new Clause 46A in the Solicitors Act be suitably clear and unambiguous, so we ask the Government to consider very carefully the wording in the Bill. We accept that new subsection (3) may not be perfect. It was designed to reduce bureaucracy, but might be unnecessarily restrictive. The improvements to the Bill that the amendment makes are that the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal must be financed by each practising solicitor, not by the Law Society, thus helping to establish the tribunal’s independence. Further, if the tribunal is to provide for its own administration, it should have specific power to do so through an appropriate vehicle. It does not make sense for the Act to give administrative powers to the tribunal itself, so we have suggested a company limited by guarantee, which is what I understand the tribunal would prefer to see. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal would then be able to employ its own staff, run its own premises and provide for its own administration. I beg to move.