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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I too support the amendment. Your Lordships may recall that I was a member of the Joint Committee serving under the noble Lord, Lord Hunt. One aspect in the evidence that worried us a lot was that the provision of legal services in a new way and by new entrants, as it were, could damage existing firms. I was not able to be here on the last occasion we discussed this, but the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, spoke about his experience and his knowledge of practice, particularly in Wales and no doubt elsewhere. He gives an account of some firms of solicitors working in quite beleaguered circumstances. In other words, there is a very narrow margin that keeps them going. I reached a conclusion on the committee that the Government had not been sufficiently concerned about the impact on local solicitors. I support this provision because it would require that consideration was specifically given to the threat to other practitioners in the area.