Legal Services Bill [HL]

rose to move, as an amendment to the Motion that this House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 74A to 77A, leave out ““agree”” and insert ““disagree””. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments Nos. 81A to 88A as well as these amendments, since exactly the same point applies to all of them. I was glad to hear the Minister say what importance is attached to the office of the Lord Chief Justice and his view. We want to take that one stage further and restore the matter to where it was agreed in this House earlier this year. We want to see a requirement in the Bill for the concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice in the appointment or removal of top officials such as the head of the LSB. Any law student will know that consultation is not enough—you can consult, and comply with, the decision of Mr Justice Webster in 1986 in a case reported in all the textbooks, but you are free to disregard anything he may say. As for the suggestion, which I had not really heard on the Floor of the House until today, that the Lord Chief Justice might publicly comment on the rejection of his advice, I find that a most extraordinary situation. You can just imagine that the Lord Chief Justice might happen to have information known to him personally about the character of a person proposed to be elected. Is it seriously supposed that he could write a public document saying, ““My reasons for objecting were as follows””? It cannot be done in that way.