Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. Since we discussed this previously, I have consulted the Department of Trade and Industry. My officials have had discussions about the implications of the measure. It is true that ABS companies and the directors will already have a number of statutory duties under company law. Noble Lords could argue that these could potentially conflict but it is our contention that it is for the director concerned to ensure that any action which they take does not breach any of the statutory duties. While the same position applies in respect of directors of ABS firms, the Bill provides further safeguards. Lawyers and ABS firms have a statutory duty at Clause 169 to comply with their professional conduct obligations. In addition, at Clause 88 the Bill prevents any non-lawyers who are shareholders, managers or employees of an alternative business structure firm from acting in a way that causes lawyers to breach their professional conduct rules. My contention is very simple—that a new override provision is not necessary. Having consulted, we know that there is a genuine concern that this would create uncertainty, in particular for company law and for other legislation. Noble Lords will not be surprised to hear that we believe that the Bill sets out that statutory duties must be respected and that an override clause could potentially have a detrimental effect on company law. Therefore, we believe that we do not need to accept this amendment and we hope that the noble Lord will withdraw it.