Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I start by saying that I could not agree more on the importance of access to justice; it is vital. I have approached it by seeking to recognise that when licensing authorities are operating they must balance access to justice correctly against other objectives and ensure that it is achieved. In that respect there is nothing between us. I have sought to put access to justice in the context of enabling it to be balanced so that it can be achieved taking into account the other regulatory objectives. The interaction of those objectives is important. I appreciate what the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, said about Amendment No. 248, but I want that to be seen as reinforcing that as effectively as possible. We must make sure that we not only get a balance but also that the other objectives are not lost or forgotten, or, indeed, that the holistic approach of the regulatory objectives, working together, means access to justice is suitably protected. What I am trying to demonstrate is that we have taken all the regulatory objectives and said, ““These are critical?; access to justice certainly is. But all of them need to be considered effectively and properly. That is my difficulty with Amendment No. 252. I do not in any way differ from the requirement about access to justice issues—the noble and learned Baroness indicated that in the examples she gave; the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, gave examples in the context of the Part 5. We must make certain that access to justice is protected. But I want it to be done with the other objectives. All I am saying is that they are all important; they all have to be dealt with properly; and they all have to be, within the context of the amendments I am moving, seen to be important—an issue we will come on to in terms of reporting and so on. It does not mean that I am in any way suggesting that access to justice is less than very important; I am simply saying that actually all the objectives are and that it needs to be considered as critical alongside the other objectives. I have problems with two of the amendments within the group. Amendment No. 253 in a sense seeks to give priority to access to justice by imposing a requirement that it is not quite the same as a regulatory objective. There is a risk in that. A similar obligation that is not quite the same could cast doubt on what we mean by access to justice, and I do not want anything in the legislation that could create confusion about how you interpret the objectives and over what the licensing authorities’ duties are. Amendment No. 254 has the list of groups of consumers. Noble Lords will know—I indicated this in Committee—from my previous existence in education and all the way through my existence as a DCA Minister that I really do not like lists in legislation. The use of different phrases can cause confusion. If we single out four groups of consumers we fail to recognise other consumer interests as well. We have had much debate, as I have already indicated, about the effect of alternative business structures on rural communities and those who are poor and their use of legal services. I absolutely agree that they must not be disadvantaged. Equally, I do not want other consumers to be disadvantaged. Everyone's access to justice is important. The general duty to consider the interests of all consumers avoids trying to put some consumer interests behind the interests of other people. I think that that can be achieved without AmendmentNo. 254. As I tried to indicate in debate on Amendment No. 248, we need to make sure that the regulatory objectives are protected. Access to justice is very important. I do not think that the amendments before us make the position any better and they risk creating problems I would rather see avoided. But I support the contention of making sure that access to justice is very important and hope that the noble Lord will withdraw the amendment.