Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 78. As noble Lords will know, the Bill, as originally drafted and approved in this House, called for the first chair of the board to be a lay person—someone who has never been a lawyer under the definition in paragraph 2(4) of Schedule 1. The Government’s rationale for that was informed in large part by the observations made by Sir David Clementi in his report. He made it quite clear that the current system is flawed and that consumers cannot have confidence in a system where the same people who represent the views of the legal profession are also regulating the profession. Requiring the first chairman to be lay ensures that the oversight of the new regime is spearheaded by someone who is not tied up with the profession and can take an independent and fresh look at how that regulation should be achieved. Questions, however, were asked in the other place as to why only the first chairman should be subject to this requirement, and there were persuasive arguments why all chairs of the board should be lay. There has been a lack of consumer confidence in the way that some complaints against lawyers have been handled. I know, as Members of your Lordships' House know, that the great majority of lawyers do a thoroughly good and professional job. They should have nothing to fear from a lay chair, and they will benefit from the enhanced consumer confidence that this brings. Having considered very carefully the arguments put forward both in the other place and by consumer bodies, and having taken into account the largely neutral views of the legal professions, the Government supported an amendment in the other place that all chairs of the board should be lay. We think that that sends the right signal, but I stress that it does not mean that the views of the profession will be ignored. The Bill provides for a board made up of both professional and lay members to ensure that all sides are represented by the best people for the job. That seems to me exactly the right balance. Professional members can represent up to half the board’s constitution. Having carefully considered the overall balance and having listened to the views of Members in the other place, we think that the provision that the chair should always be lay is right. I beg to move. Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 78.—(Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.)