Compensation Bill [HL]

I want to refer to a point made by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, which is that we are here dealing with quite a small sector. We are not dealing with the scope of the Financial Services Authority, which extends to insurance companies, banks, asset management—the list is almost endless—or of the Law Society, which deals with 85,000 solicitors. We are here dealing with a comparatively small number of claims management companies who are falling under this scrutiny because of what I believe to be the irresponsible actions of some of them. I suppose that what I am really stressing is that with such a small sector as this, the person—although it can be a corporation—should be independent of any provider of claims management services. I hope that the Minister will see my comments in that light. She is right to stress that the Financial Services Authority has on its board not only people who are administering it as regulators but people from the industry. In a way, that is to have a balanced view. The regulator may well want to set up an advisory committee on which there would be providers of claims management services to provide that interface between the regulator and the industry; but the regulator should not be someone who provides claims management services. I hope that the    Minister will understand the purpose of the amendment in more focused terms. I recognise that in many ways she is seeking to meet the point, and I very much welcome some of the comments that she has made.