Legal Services Bill [Lords]

My hon. Friend makes an important and valuable point, which underlines my next observation, which is that had the consultation process been so dominated by representatives of consumer organisations, we might have a rather different Bill and heard different comments today. Notwithstanding the praise that has been given, we have to recognise that overall, the debate has been legally driven and legally dominated. It is interesting that those who have been so complimentary toward the ad hoc Committee are largely solicitors and lawyers who agree with those who participated in the Committee. The amendments that have been accepted are those that were proposed by them, and they have been complimented by them. My perspective is that of a non-lawyer consumer. Listening to the debate, I have at times felt like an atheist at a Council of Churches debate, because the nature of this debate has been arcane and sometimes almost theological. I do not pretend to understand all the arcane structures and processes of the legal services industry, but I have a general understanding, from a consumer’s perspective, of how that industry appears not to be meeting the needs and concerns of the general public. I hesitated to speak at first, but then I thought that, as a representative of constituents who are mainly on low incomes and do not readily run to the courts, I am perhaps better placed, and in some respects better qualified, to participate than are some others. My constituents have little confidence in the law. There is a pervading suspicion of lawyers, and given the cases that have been brought to me, I can understand that. That feeling was reinforced in me three or four years ago, during the Carter review of legal aid, when I was asked to attend a meeting of solicitors in Birmingham. When I got there, I was stuck on a chair in front of a great group of solicitors and told that the big issue in my constituency was the absence of legal aid. I was puzzled, and my response to that statement was fairly robust. I said that I had been an MP for four or five years and had held hundreds of surgeries, but not one person had come to me to complain about the inability to get legal aid. However, many people had come to me to complain about the services that they had received from solicitors. Needless to say, that did not go down too well. What struck me was the ability of the profession to redefine self-interest as public interest. That experience clearly demonstrated to me how exclusive the profession was, and how it perceived the outside world. As I see it, there are two big issues: first, lack of accountability, and secondly, cost. Reference has been made to the number of complaints that have been dealt with unsatisfactorily by the Bar Council and the Law Society. One third of Bar Council complaints ended up with the ombudsman, as did more than 17,000 complaints made to the Law Society. There is a general feeling that complaints are being judged and determined by members of the legal profession, and that they run a closed shop. Looking at the number of complaints and given the prevailing perception that there is little point in complaining, I cannot help but wonder how many complaints there would be if we had a process that commanded public trust.