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Compensation Bill [HL]

I have had one or two exchanges with the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart. He generally succeeds in convincing me that his case is right. In this case, however, the contract is not with the consumer, it is with the consumer’s solicitor. Therefore, it would not be caught under the Unfair Contract Terms Act because it is not a contract with a consumer. The problem is that on the face of it it is not one-sided because the solicitor, one would think, would be able to move to another contractor if he did not like the terms which were being offered. But, as I understand it—and this is the point I would make to the noble Lord—this is a developing area. It is one where we need to send some pretty clear warning signals that people are not going to step into this area and make a lot of money for themselves on the back of poor, vulnerable victims, merely by carrying out the contract with the solicitor rather than with the consumer or the claimant. Therefore, I very much welcome what the noble Baroness has said. I will certainly provide her with the evidence which has been shared with me, and then we can see what we can do to send out that warning signal to those who seek to make a profit from some poor individual’s misery. Perhaps I may also say how delighted I am at the way in which the Department for Work and Pensions is concentrating on rehabilitation. I do not want now to embark on a great debate about rehabilitation, but the Minister will know that for many years I have looked to the Government to provide a much greater impetus on rehabilitation. For everyone who is injured in an accident there is not always someone to blame. You could fall off a ladder at home with devastating consequences; it could happen through an act of God. There is not necessarily someone there to blame, but an injured individual needs rehabilitation whether or not there is insurance involved. I would like to see the National Health Service make one of its prime objectives—as it used to be at its foundation—getting people back to work and back to full health as soon as possible; and for rehabilitation to return to the centre of the National Health Service where we so urgently require it to be provided. I recognise that urgent operations, accident and emergencies et cetera, have taken up a huge part of NHS resources, with the result that rehabilitation has, to some extent, been sidelined. But I detect—particularly from the Ministers involved in the Department for Work and Pensions—that that will all change, and I could not be more delighted. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 2 agreed to. Clause 3 [The Regulator]: