Legal Services Bill [Lords]

I shall come to that. The Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007 that was passed earlier this year, and the Bill, touch on that point, but multidisciplinary partnerships are a new concept. There has been much discussion about the idea in Scotland, but the debate has not moved forward. Scottish law firms are expanding overseas in the same way as English legal firms. Unlike English common law, Scots law is based on the Roman law, so it is well placed to expand into continental systems that are also based on Roman law. I am sure that as Scotland prospers under the new SNP Administration, many more firms will take up the advantages of expanding into Europe, as Scotland takes a much greater interest in Europe without having to come to it through the UK. When the Bill was debated in another place, an amendment was proposed that would have provided for those new entities to be monitored in the first few years of their existence. When the Minister introduced the debate, we discussed whether the provision is a sunrise or sunset clause, or something in between. The hon. Member for Stafford (Mr. Kidney) made a good point when he said that those organisations should be monitored in their first few years of existence to see how they prosper. I suspect that they are coming and that they will spread to other jurisdictions, and we need to have some information on them. I appreciate that the Minister might not be able to respond to these matters in detail in her winding up, but I shall raise some of my concerns so that they can be given some other consideration. The Bill includes two clauses—196 and 197—and two schedules that will have a direct impact in Scotland. They make changes to the system of regulating Scottish practitioners in reserved areas such as financial services and immigration and asylum cases. I have no great points to make about them, as they come under the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 2007, but I note that those measures make several repeals of provisions in both the 2007 Act and the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980. Will those repeals require the consent of the Scottish Parliament? If so, has such agreement has been sought and obtained?