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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I really cannot allow the Minister to get away with that, however pleasantly she puts it across. I am representing the consumer when I say the consumer will suffer. That is what I said—it was the whole burden of my speech: the consumer will suffer with these alternative business structures. The consumer will suffer because at the moment legal services are highly competitive among themselves—you can go anywhere and get as many quotes as you like for whatever you want to do. Whatever legal business you are in, it is highly competitive and it remains so. I am saying that from the consumer point of view, the introduction of a structure that licenses alternative businesses is an additional cost. These licences will not be cheap and they will be passed down to the consumer with no benefit to him. That is my point. We are the party of the consumer and I repeat that. That is why I said earlier when this point was raised that when it comes to this matter, the Government are on the wrong side.