Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, agreeing with what the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, says is something I always try to do, not least because he offers a great deal of sense in our debates, along with other noble Lords who have spoken. That does not necessarily mean, however, that I feel the need to amend the Bill; rather, as you would expect, it means that I would take it away and consider whether we ought to do more. David Clementi was clear that you should not try to rank the regulatory objectives in the Bill, prioritising some over others, because that could create difficulties. Rather, he said, it was for the regulatory body to determine what weight to give at various points, depending on the issue before it. The Government have taken that approach, in line with what he said. He concluded that, "““it should be for the Regulator, operating a risk based approach to regulation, to judge the relative importance of each consideration on a case by case basis””." We have consistently said that, and have acted upon the Joint Committee’s recommendation that the Explanatory Notes should make it explicit that the objectives are not listed in order of importance. We took it on board and dealt with it as appropriately as we could. Effective competition is an important part of ensuring that good services are provided. The briefing given out by Which? quotes something from the Financial Times which struck me as I read it over the weekend—that: "““Competition delivers results in ways that government bureaucrats””," which I guess includes me, "““cannot anticipate. Consumers can expect more choice, innovative services and lower prices””." Those are important aspects of the provision of good, high-quality services. They may not be of a higher importance than the other objectives in all circumstances, but they are none the less important in certain circumstances. Therefore, we have deliberately not ranked the objectives, but left it for the regulatory body, which we think is the right place, to determine in the specific circumstances we are dealing with what weight to give—as the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, said, the appropriate weight. That is why I resist the amendment. As regards the difference between what happens in the later clauses—I think the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, mentioned Clause 55—in terms of the anti-competitive role of the Office of Fair Trading and what is going on in the earlier clauses, Clause 1 applies to services provided by authorised persons, and Clauses 3 and 27 require the board and approved regulators to apply these objectives. Any rule maintained by an authorised body which restricts competition can be duly struck down by the board. It can do so following advice from the OFT under Clause 56. Clause 1, in particular, ensures that competition is understood by authorised persons and that they operate bearing in mind competition. Regulatory bodies and the role of regulation with the OFT comes in later clauses. In drawing up the clauses we consulted the OFT, of course. If all else fails, I can rely on the fact that the Office of Fair Trading is comfortable and happy that we have dealt with these issues appropriately by giving it a clear role in terms of the legislation while seeking to promote competition where appropriate, for the reasons that it has outlined of the potential benefit to the public in general and, obviously, consumers of legal services in particular.