Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for the change that, in particular, Amendment No. 12A introduces. He will be aware that what I take to be the substance of that amendment formed part of one of the amendments which was incorporated in the Bill in your Lordships’ House before it went to another place. I know that the right honourable gentleman the then Home Secretary considered Amendment No. 12A at the Committee stage in another place but, for some reason I have not yet fathomed, it did not find its way at Report stage into the Bill. The Minister has now rectified that omission by bringing it forward at this stage, and I am extremely grateful to him for doing so. I should like to be absolutely clear about the text. Paragraph (b) of Amendment No. 12A states, "““that it is appropriate to act under this section in all the circumstances of the case (including in particular the impact of so acting on the other regulatory objectives)””." In the Bill as it first emerged, it was enough to trigger the involvement of the Legal Services Board for an adverse impact to be experienced simply by one of the eight regulatory objectives. As I understand it, the amendment now states that the Legal Services Board has to conduct a kind of cost-benefit analysis; that is to say, it has to look at the initial adverse impact in the context of any positive impact that might be had on the other seven objectives. One of the examples mooted in your Lordships’ House during our many debates on this subject was about a measure which had an adverse impact on competition but a correspondingly beneficial effect on access to justice, and it was up to the Legal Services Board to determine whether or not there was a net benefit. That is my understanding of what we sought to do here. It is also my understanding of what the amendment, which the Minister has kindly presented to your Lordships’ House, achieves. I should like the Minister to confirm that.