Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 3: 3: Clause 1, page 1, line 9, at beginning insert ““subject to the objectives in paragraphs (a) to (c),”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, the noble Baroness will recall the exchanges on this amendment over the Dispatch Box in Committee. In particular, I hope that she will recall that two questions were at issue. The first was whether the competition objective ought to be subservient to the first three objectives in Clause 1(1); that is, whether it ought to bite only if the Legal Services Board was satisfied that the first three objectives had been achieved. The noble Baroness’s response, consistent with responses on Clause 1 in other respects, was to say that in her judgment all seven—now eight—objectives of the clause should carry equal weight, and that the Legal Services Board should exercise its judgment freely as between the appropriate weight given. As the noble Baroness has not tabled an amendment on this issue, it is reasonable to conclude that that remains the Government’s position. It is now up to us to decide whether to put the matter to a vote. However, there was another dimension to the amendment, to which the noble Baroness promised to give further consideration. Clause 1 provides that the competition responsibilities of the Legal Services Board apply only to anti-competitive behaviour by ““authorised persons””. It is perfectly understandable that that should have been the Government’s approach as the Competition Commission and the OFT have no responsibilities in that area. However, the Bill is by no means silent on the responsibilities of those organisations. The Minister will recall that there are detailed provisions in Clauses 56 to 60 about the responsibilities of the OFT and the Competition Commission over the competitive behaviour of the regulators themselves. An extremely elaborate procedure is laid down whereby the OFT draws up a report and reportsto the Secretary of State. There is then a provisionfor the Secretary of State to go to the Competition Commission for a further report on the samematter. We have two competition authorities, therefore, dealing with the responsibilities of the regulators on the one hand and the authorised persons on the other. My concern, as the Minister well knows, is over the confusion and conflict between the competition responsibilities of the OFT, the Secretary of State and the competition authority on the one hand and the Legal Services Board on the other. It is hard to see how you can compartmentalise anti-competitive behaviour in a regulator which will inevitably have an effect on the competitive behaviour of an authorised person. How, in those circumstances, can you unpack the anti-competitive conduct so as the divide the responsibilities as clearly as the Bill does? I beg to move.