Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I always consult my colleagues. But, most important, I take legal advice and parliamentary counsel advice that goes alongside that. I would be distraught werethere any suggestion that I misled the House. I have thought about that a lot. This is what I believe I did. I accept completely that the noble Lords, Lord Kingsland and Lord Hunt of Wirral, and other noble Lords were seeking to ensure that this Bill was even-handed in its approach to the Consumer Panel and the role of the professions. I think that noble Lords accepted, after our lengthy and helpful debates in Committee, that there was a need to create a Consumer Panel. There was no such body; therefore, for the Consumer Panel to be able either to take judicial review or make proper representations, it needed to be set up properly. The concern that was expressed was whether that shifted the weight of representation away from the professions and the legal services to the point at which the Bill was in a sense up-ended. That we did not wish to do. I took away Amendment No. 38. I did not accept it on the Floor, which is what you do if you are an accepting an amendment there and then—but it is reasonable to say that I might not have done that in any event, because I would have had to consult. I took it back and took legal and parliamentary counsel advice on whether the principle behind even-handedness was already in the Bill or not. I have been back several times and the advice that I have received consistently is that scattered throughout the Bill—and I know that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Alloway, has been concerned that it is scattered—is a provision that allows for consultation with the professions. The principal way in which the professions can make representations, by the nature of the organisations that they are, and in which they have traditionally sought to make representations, secures them mutatis mutandis. Therefore, my advice was that, were we to insert anything further, we would be in danger of moving the Bill in the other direction. What lies between us is simply that the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, with his experience—and no doubt he will be joined by other noble Lords—does not think that we have achieved what I believe we have achieved. Noble Lords will have to make their decision whether we have or have not done so from what I and the noble Lord have said. That is the joy of being in your Lordships’ House—it is up to noble Lords to determine. From my perspective, I have sought to ensure that what I agreed to do has been achieved, which was to make sure that the measure was even-handed. It is my contention that it has been achieved. That may not satisfy noble Lords, but I believe that I have not misled the House in so doing.