Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

My Lords, there is a very real difficulty about the whole of Clause 4 because there is nothing in it that suggests that there is any degree of independence in the director, other than in subsection (4). I respectfully agree with all noble Lords who have spoken so far about the absolute necessity of having the word ““independence”” in a clause of this sort. Without it, the clause does not show that the director would be independent on general issues as opposed to specific cases.