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Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 34: 34: Clause 4, page 2, line 37, leave out from ““must”” to end of line 38 and insert ““ensure the development and maintenance of standards in relation to—”” The noble Lord said: Amendment No. 35 is grouped with Amendment No. 34 but I do not intend to move it, and I can be extremely telegraphic in my comments on this one. The amendment relates to Clause 4, which deals with standards of training and education. It is a probing amendment with which I seek to ask the Government how they envisage the role of the Legal Services Board in this area. Broadly speaking, the amendment is tabled to reinforce the principle of the legal services supervisory role in the Clause 4 area. In our respectful submission, the board should be entrusted with overseeing the approved regulators and ensuring that they promote appropriate standards of training and education. We believe emphatically that the Legal Services Board should not actively assist the promotion of education and training. This is a classic example of problems associated with cost. I do not need to remind the Committee that education and training is potentially an extremely expensive area of activity. It is very important that the Bill makes clear the limits of the Legal Services Board’s responsibilities in this area; otherwise, we are likely to be presented with a board that has a special education and training department with all sorts of functions, which could be very costly. I beg to move.