Legal Services Bill [HL]

I strongly support the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen. I shall deal with points that the Committee has heard me on before. The noble Lord, Lord Neill, has already referred to them: the question of access to justice and the rights of individual consumers. We have already heard of the fragility of small firms of solicitors, which will become even more fragile under the new scheme. That raises the real possibility of an adverse effect on the consumer if those small firms do not survive. Will the new types of firm be prepared to take on unprofitable, difficult and time-consuming litigants who are none the less entitled to consideration as consumers? At Second Reading, we heard that there are already areas, and may well be even more, where certain sections of the public who need, and are entitled to, help from solicitors already do not find solicitors within an acceptable radius of where they live. Whether in small or medium-sized towns or in certain rural areas, the consumer will be the loser if there is not serious reflection and investigation about how Part 5 will work.