Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

I am sure that the noble Lord is right, but what I am objecting to is the exchange of money. If you go to the website of the union, you may click through to the page where legal services are offered, click where the page directs you to a law firm, the law firm is named, and then you can continue to click until it says, ““For every case referred to this firm, the firm will pay the union a sum of several hundred pounds””. If the unions wish to help their members, it would be very easy simply to refer them to a whole number of local firms without money changing hands. There is nothing to stop the good work done by the unions, which I praise. It is the exchange of money that I object to. In the case that I am thinking of, it was actually public funds that went to the solicitors' firm. It illustrates what is wrong with referral fees: the issue is treated as commercial and the law firm can sit back, knowing that cases will flood its way, whether it deserves them or not. There have been other reprehensible incidents such as this, with which I will not delay noble Lords, save to mention one other effect. Given that very large sums of money are paid to the union, whichever union it is, by the law firm, and we know that many unions are inclined to support one political party, we end up with money being paid—very indirectly, I grant you—to the political party because the money is coming from the funds that the union has accumulated, and part of those funds come from referral fees. If the solicitors can afford to pay £200 a time, or whatever it may be, to the union in return for every case, that must logically indicate that the case could have been handled for less money than was charged. I am by no means saying that that is always bad, but there is definitely a risk in referral fees. In particular, there is a severe risk to the interests of justice where a firm knows that thousands of cases can come its way without it making the effort in the market to get them and handle them well. Therefore, with all due respect, I hope that the amendment will not be pursued, as I do not think that it helps the Bill.