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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I am most grateful to the noble Baroness for her response and to all noble Lords who have spoken. It is a well known technique from the Government side of the Committee to attack the details of an amendment and not address the principle that lies behind it. I am certainly not going to accuse the Minister of taking that approach towards this amendment this afternoon. As I understand it, what the noble Baroness is saying to the Committee is that the principle that lies behind the amendment, as has been reflected in all speeches by noble Lords this afternoon, is entirely acceptable to the Government. That is to say, the task of the Legal Services Board is supervisory, and direct regulation is the task of the approved regulators. I see the noble Baroness nodding so we are ad idem about that. The difficulty that the noble Baroness has with Amendment No. 33A is that it goes too far in the wrong direction. There is a danger with the text of Amendment No. 33A that it would allow the Legal Services Board to stray beyond its supervisory role. Is there any objection to the Government, on Report, coming up with a better amendment than Amendment No. 33A, which would reflect exactly the balance that the noble Baroness and all noble Lords who have spoke want to achieve? I see the noble Baroness nodding—