---

Legal Services Bill [HL]

It seemed to me that the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, had conclusively answered the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Borrie. It may well not be necessary to set up a new body to represent practitioners, because they have a body. At the moment in the Bill, as I understand it, this board, which has a majority of laymen, is bound to listen to representations from consumers and to answer those representations and explain why it is not accepting them. As far as I know, there is no obligation on the board to listen to practitioners at all or to answer practitioners. It would be fairly extraordinary, would it not, to have a body of laymen regulating the provision of medical services that was bound to consult patients but need not listen to doctors at all? Subject to being corrected, that is what the Bill says. It may not be what the Bill intends, but it is what the Bill says.