Legal Services Bill [Lords]

The hon. Gentleman, running backwards as fast as he can without quite falling over, ignores the code that allows the flexibility now for Ministers to consult relevant persons. What is the problem with that? It suffices for every other public appointment. Clementi does not want the Lord Chief Justice to make a co-decision; consumers overwhelmingly do not want it. The availability of consultation is present. The hon. Gentleman has run back up a dead end. Let me deal with the question of thresholds for the exercise of the LSB’s powers, to which the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate referred. It is essential that the board be able to exercise appropriate powers where the acts or omissions of an approved regulator damage the regulatory objectives, but to amend the threshold so that the board can act only where there is a significant adverse impact on the whole of the regulatory objectives is to tie its hands. The board must not stand by and watch while a significant or serious event happens before it can act; that is not in the consumer interest. We will overturn that amendment. We have discussed the sunrise clause and researching before we introduce ABS activity in England and Wales. If part 5, which brings in ABS, cannot commence until some research has been conducted on ABS, there will be no ABS to research, and the process of bringing it into force will be very circular. The amendment to that effect made in the other place is about delaying unreasonably the positive benefits that ABS will bring to consumers and providers alike. The hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey, among others, raised issues of providers cherry-picking, undercutting, wiping out the competition and not providing services in rural areas because of the power of the open market, and the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath), who is no longer in his place, talked about virtuous local solicitors using conveyancing to subsidise criminal work. Theirs is simply not a realistic position. The most dynamic firms in my constituency, where there are small towns, only do criminal work and they do not subsidise it from anything. The hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate spoke with pride of being a solicitor who had done legal aid criminal work for the poor on benefits for the past 12 years, and he has a decent quality suit on tonight, so I think that he is managing without subsidising that work from anywhere else. The licensing authorities will have a clear duty to consider the effect on all the regulatory objectives, including access to justice, when carrying out the licensing functions. That is in clause 28, which covers all licensing functions, not just decisions on applications for alternative business structure licences. That duty is reinforced by the requirements in clause 82 for licensing authorities to issue policy statements about how they will comply with their duty to consider the regulatory objectives when carrying out their functions. Again, that is about access to justice. Licensing authorities will be held to those duties through monitoring by the legal services board. Those duties will fully protect access to justice.