My Lords, I am perfectly satisfied that the Minister makes a very good case. We support it and would also support the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. He and I between us have nearly 100 years—God help us—as practising solicitors and we have seen our profession change from a profession to a more conventional, perhaps even less than conventional, business. Professional standards seem to me—and, I dare say, to the noble Lord—to have suffered considerably from the commercialisation of the profession in a way that I find distasteful. I dare say he does as well. So we welcome this.
The problem does not stop with the inducements offered by solicitors or other people. All of us, I suspect, are constantly beset by unsolicited telephone calls raising the possibility of claims where there is no foundation to them, and all kinds of other calls selling services and the like. Quite apart from this legislation, the Government generally need to look at what can be done to make it much more difficult for this cold-calling industry across a range of issues—and certainly in the areas of promoting claims for PIP or accidents that have never occurred and so on. They should consider whether there cannot be a framework that makes it much more difficult.
Many of us have signed up to a system that is supposed to screen such calls but it simply does not work. Although it is impossible, I suppose, to stop e-mails, telephone calls which constantly occur—whether they are about this specific issue or more generally—are a nuisance. They are expensive and they are extremely irritating. It is not a matter for the Bill but perhaps the noble Lord could take back to his colleagues in BIS, and possibly other departments, that this issue generally needs addressing in addition to the specifics referred to in the government amendments and the noble Lord’s amendment, which we support.