Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, the quality of the debate on the amendment has been high even by the standards of the debates we have had on previous amendments throughout the course of the Bill. I was particularly thankful to the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, who made an exceptionally fine and demanding—from the Minister’s point of view—intervention on behalf of our amendments. Although the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, sought to disagree with me he was at his most eloquent and my noble friend Lord Hunt has always found a certain amount of liquid in even the driest of water courses. I am most grateful to all of them. The noble Lord, Lord Borrie, rightly said thatwe should look at the role of the Legal Services Board in a context wider than that of the regulationof complaints. We on these Benches accept the establishment of the Legal Services Board but at no stage in the Bill’s course have sought to amend it so as to remove the board. We also accept that there are certain functions of the board in supervising the complaints system that should legitimately be financed by the professions. But the functions of the Legal Services Board go way beyond the complaints arena. My noble friend Lord Hunt dealt particularly vividly with the wider public interest. A number of other public regulatory organisations have both their start-up and their running costs supported by the Government. I can think of no public regulator of the sort that the Legal Services Board purports to be that is not in some form or other supported by the Government. Moreover, the authorised persons will have no control whatever over the number of additional functions that might be heaped on the board for which they will have to pay. There is nothing in the Bill that controls that process on their behalf. Moreover, a range of existing functions currently financed by the taxpayer will now be transferred and become a financial burden on the authorised users. The Government are a net beneficiary of that process. The legal profession will carry burdens in future that were formerly carried by the taxpayer. Given the scale of the costs that the profession is about to meet, that is, in my respectful submission, entirely unacceptable. Despite the noble Baroness’s attempt at calming words, I find the situation entirely unacceptable. At this late hour we would probably be imprudent on both sides of the House to vote, but nevertheless I will give the noble Baroness a week longer to consider the position. Meanwhile, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 166 [The levy]: [Amendment No. 414 not moved.]