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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her reply to the debate in which I did not participate. Some of what I wanted to raise might have been better raised on the Question whether the clause stand part. The provisions of Clause 48 impose a mandatory duty on the board to issue statements of policy in seven particular respects. That could create a whole apparatus of guidance that goes far beyond the exercise of discretion to intervene where there is a perceived weakness in the existing regulatory provision. It appears that the board is being invited to do what the noble Baroness herself is clearly and sensibly reluctant to do, which is to spell out the circumstances in which these various powers may be exercised. If that happens, arguments will be made by the regulator about whether the supervision by the Legal Services Board gave no indication about the circumstances that arose in the policy statement. In itself, that is suggestive of a very wide-ranging and detailed role, which I suspect is not necessary. Clearly, it is sensible for the supervisory board to have an interchange of ideas and considerations with the appointed regulators, but this is much more. This is almost the statute book being issued by the supervisory board—by the Legal Services Board. The power to issue not just simple guidance when the Legal Services Board considers it necessary, but a duty to issue statements of policy right across the board in this way, is a very heavy burden indeed. I hesitate to reuse the word that I used, which caused some eyebrows to be raised in an earlier debate—incubus—but that is how it strikes me. The motivation behind the amendment seems to me quite a helpful indication that these policy statements should not have that encyclopaedic nature; they should not necessarily be regarded as all-encompassing. They are there as an aid to the Legal Services Board and are not intended to be used, save in the very limited way that it thinks is appropriate.