Legal Services Bill [Lords]

One would start in such a case with the solicitor’s firm, but it is important that the new office for legal complaints is a one-stop shop and that each aspect of the problem outlined by the hon. Gentleman can be properly, speedily and transparently investigated. That is the outcome that we all seek. The legal service ombudsman’s reports on the Bar were positive and praised the way in which it dealt with matters. It is not chance that, as the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) observed, most of the complaints that Members of Parliament have received have been about the way in which solicitors have performed. Zahida Manzoor, the legal services ombudsman, fined the Law Society £250,000, stating that she was imposing the penalty because of the inadequacy of the Law Society’s plan for securing improvements to its complaints handling procedure. The White Paper that followed the original Clementi report committed itself to the three main provisions proposed by Sir David. The Joint Committee then made some valuable recommendations pointing to particular areas of concern. It is right to pay tribute to the Government for listening to a substantial number of those, but on regulatory objectives, the Committee recommended that"““protecting and promoting the public interest””" should be included in the Bill’s list of objectives, and that the objectives should be redrafted to make explicit reference to the independence of the legal profession. The Committee found that the Bill gave the Secretary of State too much power, and recommended that that should be re-examined. It also expressed concern about alternative business structures, highlighting the potential for conflicts of interest, and about access to justice. It felt that the office for legal complaints should be not just a ““rebrand””, but a genuinely new start, particularly for complaints relating to solicitors. In that connection, how does the Minister justify simply moving the office to Coventry from Leamington Spa—a move that is deliberately designed to ensure that the very staff whose work has been criticised would continue to deal with complaints against solicitors—and how can she assure us that that constitutes something good for the future that will tackle the problems that have bedevilled that part of the law since the 1980s? The Government have accepted that there should be explicit reference to independence and that there should be reconsideration of the Secretary of State’s role. In the other place, the Government tabled amendments that dealt with many of those issues, but given the issues on which they lost votes, whether the amendments were tabled by a Cross Bencher, a Liberal Democrat or a Conservative, they seem rather unbending if the Minister’s tone today is anything to judge by. That is a pity, because the process has been relatively co-operative and progress has been made. For example, an amendment was passed that meant that the Lord Chief Justice’s concurrence would be required before the appointment by the Lord Chancellor of the chairman of the board. That was a means of securing for the board some independence from Government. The Minister’s comments suggest that she has some sympathy with that idea, although she has made it clear that the Government will reverse that decision. We must find a way that ensures that it would not be possible for the Lord Chancellor to appoint friends of his to the board without any check. It would be intolerable and unprecedented if it was possible to put friends of the Labour party or friends of the Lord Chancellor on the board, and that would not give us the independent, free legal profession that we are entitled to expect in this country. Even if one accepted that the present Lord Chancellor could be trusted, any such appointment would still be a constitutional issue. The concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice provides a necessary check. The Minister says that she will reverse that, but it is important to have some form of check in the system—some consultation and some way of ensuring that our legal profession can continue to be genuinely independent.