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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I venture to suggest that both the Minister and the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, have dug themselves into holes because they are determined to consider two opposite poles. One says we must have a negative procedure, the other says we must have a positive one. Surely the right answer is that a regulator who wishes to change his rules shall give notice of the change he intends to the Consumer Panel and to the Lord Chancellor, and if they do not like it, or are doubtful about it, they report it to the Legal Services Board and say, ““I think you ought to look at this””. If they do not do so, it goes through on the nod if nothing has happened within a month or two. Approval is needed unless someone raises an objection. It is not for the judge of the Legal Services Board to search everyone’s case to try and find the objection; it is up to him to deal with objections if they are made. We do want the concept not of ““exempt””, but of ““they are approved unless the Legal Services Board, on the recommendation of the Consumer Panel or the Secretary of State, says that they need looking at””.