Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I was not trying to suggest that for a second. I take that committee’s reports extremely seriously. If the committee recommends to your Lordships’ House that the Government should change a procedurefrom negative to affirmative, or whatever, the Government have always responded positively to those recommendations, certainly as regards any legislation that I have ever taken through the House. That is what I was trying to say. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee submits its reports to the House but it is for the House to decide the relevant matter. This afternoon noble Lords may decide to change what the committee has suggested and to vote on this amendment, if they wish. However, I was making the point that the Government always listen carefully to the committee and take its views very seriously. Certainly that is my view as a Minister responsible for a number of Bills on which the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has commented. I am not in a position to change from the negative to the affirmative procedure. That is not because we are suggesting to your Lordships that the amendment is not important. I stand by what I said that there is no question but that the purpose of this provisionis to enable the board to be reviewed and, if needbe, made bigger or smaller in the light of its responsibilities. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, talked about skeleton Bills and I know that there is concern in your Lordships’ House that all Governments have a tendency to introduce skeleton Bills. However, the number of amendments to the Solicitors Act that we have dealt with during the passage of this Bill is a good example of why the use of secondary legislation can be positive, because it enables us to respond to the needs of the time. I would commend having the right level of primary legislation and the ability to amend it to reflect circumstances—of which this Bill is a good example—because there will be changes. We have allowed changes to the structure of the Legal Services Board to allow other aspects of legal services to come in at a later stage—although I accept that noble Lords would have liked some of those changes to have been introduced earlier. While it may be necessary to put expertise on the board, equally it is possible for the board to get smaller.