Compensation Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have also consulted legal advice on Amendments Nos. 43, 46 and 53, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart. The advice that I have is that inserting the words that the noble Lord suggests—and I completely understand what he is seeking to do—would be wrong. It would have unforeseeable implications in terms of meaning here, because it could create or exacerbate doubt elsewhere in statute if we included a reference to ““business””. I understand that there are numerous examples of the word ““professional”” in legislation as applying to occupations outside those which used to be known as ““the professions””. These include Section 1 of the Defective Premises Act 1972, involving the duty to ensure that a dwelling house is built in a professional manner; Section 98 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, in reference to opportunities for ““professional development”” of police officers; and Section 59 of the Charities Act, in reference to ““professional fund raisers””. Given that the use of the word profession is well understood in statutory terms and the addition could cause added confusion, I am unable to accept the amendment and hope the noble Lord will withdraw it.