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Legal Services Bill [HL]

When the Minister is writing to my noble friend will she reflect on the underlying concern behind many of the contributions we have had in Committee? She has also introduced the wonderful phrase ““littering the Bill””, which I want to consider, and a new concept of light-touch public censure. What really lies behind the concern of many of your Lordships is the fact that we are dealing here with a regulator publicly censuring another regulator. That does not sound like the positive partnership structure which the Joint Committee recommended. We all want the regulators to work in partnership and to regulate the sector effectively, but the idea of the General Council of the Bar or the Master of the Faculties or the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys being censured publicly by the Legal Services Board for activities that it is carrying out as an approved regulator on a non-commercial basis leads me to ask the Minister to give some examples of where this formula is successful. I speak for all Members of the Joint Committee in saying that we cannot see that as part of a positive partnership, which, as we heard from Bridget Prentice, she wanted to promote.