Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

I can go from 1958 to last Friday on doing legal aid work. I do not know whether the noble Lord can follow me on that, so I have some experience of legal aid. I have filled in the forms and appeared in various tribunals and courts, and I have sometimes appeared pro bono with the assistance of legal aid granted by panels of solicitors who control that sort of thing. However, I am afraid that the amendment does not say anything. That is my concern. It states: "““The Lord Chancellor must secure … that individuals have access to legal services that effectively meet their needs””." That is a fine statement of principle, except that it is qualified in two ways: first, by the words, "““within the resources made available””," and importantly by the words, "““in accordance with this Part””." That can have meaning only if we look at what is in this part of the Bill, not just at this precise moment but by the time we have finished dealing with it. Your Lordships have seen the Marshalled List and will appreciate the number of amendments in my name that make it clear that I am not satisfied with the settlement put forward by the Government within the resources that are made available. The noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, asked what the Bar Council, the Law Society and all the NGOs say. They speak with one voice and accept the need for reductions. They accept that case, and so do I. It is an unhappy position and I wish it were otherwise. In my Second Reading speech, I said that I hoped that the Government would commit themselves to saying that we are not here to squeeze government expenditure for all time but that when the economy improves we can widen the use of resources that will be available at that time.