Legal Services Bill [Lords]

Yes, I agree absolutely. The hon. Gentleman and I have made common cause on some of those cases and have been disappointed to some extent by the Government’s response, especially in relation to claims handling. However, he and the Government must recognise that having a strong legal profession, independent of Government, is an important constitutional issue and improvements to the regulation of the legal profession should respect that. It is not in the consumer interest to have Government control over lawyers, because many consumers of legal services are taking cases against public authorities and the Government. British exports could be threatened if the international perception is that our legal profession is not truly independent of Government. Indeed, the chairman of the Bar Council has described the plans as ““an absurd own goal”” and he and the senior partners of five of the largest legal firms have written to the Economic Secretary to the Treasury pointing out how important the issue is and explaining that overseas legal professions are already protesting about the Government’s plans. We believe that the amendments made in the other place have helped to save British legal services exports, but can the Minister give an assurance that legal services exports are safe under her plans? If she cannot, is not £2 billion a year in lost exports a high price to pay? The Government appointed Sir David Clementi as long ago as July 2003 and the focus of his report was correctly summarised by the Minister as the complexity of the regulatory framework, how complaints about solicitors were being handled and the restrictive nature of the current business structures for lawyers and skilled professionals. However, I would say that the area of most concern was how consumer complaints against solicitors were being dealt with. There were concerns about efficiency and the overlapping powers of the oversight bodies. Sir David described the current regime as"““outdated, inflexible, over-complex and insufficiently accountable or transparent””," and the Government accepted that phrase. He suggested the three main reforms: the legal services board, with its statutory objectives; the new office of legal complaints; and liberalisation through alternative business structures. We agree with that approach. The handling of complaints against solicitors started to become a major issue as long ago as the 1980s, when it first became clear that it was taking up to two years to deal with some complaints. More recently, we have seen the cases referred to by the hon. Members for Bassetlaw (John Mann) and for North Durham (Mr. Jones), in which solicitors firms have fallen into disrepute over the handling of compensation claims by former miners. The activities of trade unions have been criticised in connection with those cases. It seems odd that today the Minister has said that it would be all right for a trade union official who is not a lawyer to appear in court, to give legal advice and to carry out other activities associated with the work of a lawyer and there would be no regulation of that person, but someone who works for a law centre or citizens advice bureau would be regulated. That may be something that trade union leaders want, but trade union members should not be treated in that second-class manner. Trade union members are consumers every bit as much as any other person and I believe that they should be treated equally. The Minister said that lawyers employed by trade unions would be regulated, but we all know of cases in which trade union officials attend tribunals and other forums on behalf of members, so surely they should be regulated.