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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I am happy to try to address those two points. It is always a joy to respond to the noble Lord. I sometimes wish he would tell me he was going to make a clause stand part intervention—then I could make sure I had everything ready for him. That would assist me enormously. I just make that small plea. I will do my very best. As the noble Lord says, Clause 68 allows the Secretary of State to modify any of the functions of an approved regulator or, in that great phrase, "““any other body (other than the Board)””." The purpose of empowering the Secretary of State, the Lord Chancellor, in that way is to ensure that approved regulators, including those who are ““creatures of statute””, as the term has it, can easily adapt to the changing legal sector, and that their regulatory powers are efficient and effective. Indeed, the noble Lord addressed the scope of that at Second Reading. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has reviewed this, as you would expect it to do, in the light of the supplementary memorandum we sent on 7 December. The noble Lord should have a copy of that, but if he does not, I will ensure that he does; it may cast more light on this clause. The committee’s report found the delegation’s prospective power to the Secretary of State and the power to amend prerogative instruments to be appropriate. The finding was reached because the committee was persuaded that we need this to create a level playing field for all approved regulators, allowing the functions of a statutory body such as the Law Society to be altered as easily as the functions of a non-statutory body. ““Any other body”” applies to bodies that are applying to be approved regulators but are not yet, and which need statutory changes to allow them to become approved regulators, or indeed licensing authorities, under the Bill. That is the purpose. If that is not a complete answer, I will supplement it in any way the noble Lord likes.