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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for the opportunity to say a bit more. I am not sure that I can give him detailed figures at this stage, but I shall endeavour before the next stage to look at the matter in greater detail. Undoubtedly he will know that we need to think about how this will be set up and, therefore, what we will be looking for. We thought carefully about the establishment of the Consumer Panel after Sir David Clementi proposed it in his review of legal services. It is an area in which we have wide support from stakeholders because it presents an opportunity to get proper representation of consumers within the legal services framework. We have based the provisions on a number of other regulators, including the Financial Services Authority, which have similar panels providing expert advice on consumer issues and needs. Under Clause 9, we have allowed the Consumer Panel to establish committees to serve the purposeof advising it on matters relating to its function. Clause 9 also allows the panel to regulate its own procedures as well as the procedures of any committee that it establishes, subject of course to the panel ensuring that each committee contains at least one member of the panel. Part of the reason for this is that we cannot foresee necessarily what skills the LSB may need on the Consumer Panel. For example, it may want an organisation to nominate someone with specific experience. The CBI might be asked to nominate someone who could provide expertise on the interests of commercial consumers. That may be an appropriate thing to do under a committee structure, and we want to provide the flexibility to enable the panel to do that. The provisions that allow for remuneration and expenses for members of the committee who are not also members of the panel are standard provisions that, again, we have extracted from other legislation so that the panel can carry out its functions appropriately and, in the example that I have already given, when there is some particular area of expertise that it would be appropriate to have. Clause 10 deals with the duty on the board to consider representations made by the panel. It provides that the board must give an explanation in the form of a notice if it disagrees. This provides a transparent procedure that ensures that the panel’s representations are considered by the board. It is very much about allowing for the first time the consumer’s voice to be heard in the legal services framework and about ensuring that the board has to say why it disagrees with representations. In a sense, it is about ensuring that we have consumer confidence in the new framework. With what I have said about seeing whether there is anything further that I can give the noble Lord on costings, I hope that that gives him a flavour of what we are seeking to do in these clauses. Clause 9 agreed to. Clauses 10 and 11 agreed to.