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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I agree with the noble Lord. Although the Secretary of State’s approval is required for the appointment or dismissal of the chairman—that is clearly set out in Amendment No. 38A—in subsection (6), as he rightly points out, the terms and conditions will be determined by the board and not by the Secretary of State. Merely the dismissal or the original appointment would require the Secretary of State’s approval. The point about committees and people who are not members of the practitioner panel is identical to the provision on the consumer panel. If there is a fault it is in trying to mirror the consumer panel with the practitioner panel. The noble Lord is quite right and I shall carefully consider the points that he has made. We are returning to the whole issue of balance, which is why these detailed clauses are being put forward. If we are to have panels and if the Minister is to utilise the Financial Services Authority as an example, I hope that she might now be able to justify why she and her colleagues have not followed the precedent a little further and why the picture she painted for us earlier is an unfinished painting. Were she to accept these amendments, the painting would be complete. I beg to move.