Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 631: 631: Clause 197, page 108, leave out lines 44 to 46 and insert— ““““court”” includes— (a) a tribunal that is (to any extent) a listed tribunal for, or for any of, the purposes of Schedule 7 to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 (functions etc of Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council); (b) a court-martial; (c) a statutory inquiry within the meaning of section 16(1) of the Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1992 (c. 53); (d) an ecclesiastical court (including the Court of Faculties);”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 638A to 647, and 655A to 719. As noble Lords will note, these consequential amendments are numerous and technical, so I do not propose to address each one in detail. The current regulatory framework is established under a number of provisions in existing legislation, primarily the Solicitors Act 1974, the Administration of JusticeAct 1985, the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 and the Access to Justice Act 1999. Amendments to the Solicitors Act have in the main been dealt with in Schedule 16. Those Acts variously deal with the regulation, education and training applying to the provision of advocacy, litigation, conveyancing and probate services. They also set out the persons who have a role in regulating those services, such as the Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chief Justice, the Secretary of State—the Lord Chancellor—the Legal Services Consultative Panel and the Office of Fair Trading. As noble Lords will know, the Bill simplifies this model by placing the board as the single oversight regulator, sweeping away the maze of existing regulators who have overlapping responsibilities. It also sets out the board’s duties in designating approved regulators in considering regulatory arrangements and ensuring compliance with the regulatory objectives. Further, a large number of existing statutory provisions refer to lawyers of a named description or certain types of legal professions. For example, many statutory provisions refer to services provided by solicitors and barristers. Under the Bill, legal services are services provided by persons authorised in respect of reserved legal activities irrespective of title. It will be possible for persons other than those with titles such as ““barrister”” or ““solicitor”” to carry out those reserved activities, so it is important that existing legislation is updated to reflect the position, covering all persons who are or may become so authorised. Given the scale of these changes, it is clearly essential to repeal a number of existing provisions to the current regime, or where appropriate to amend them so that they are consistent with the regulatory framework established under the Bill. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.