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Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 112: 112: Schedule 15 , page 212, line 16, leave out sub-paragraph (2) The noble Lord said: Amendments Nos. 112 and 113, which are grouped, relate to the Secretary of State’s influence over the Office for Legal Complaints. They to some degree rehearse the issues raised on the first day of the Committee in relation to the Legal Services Board. Amendment No. 112 would remove the provision which enables the Secretary of State to alter the number of members of the Office for Legal Complaints. Why should the Secretary of State have any role in fixing that number? While such a provision may have been a useful emergency power over the Legal Services Board, it is plainly unnecessary and undesirable here. The Legal Services Board is in charge of the OLC; the OLC is responsible to it. To insinuate the Secretary of State will confuse the chain of command. Amendment No. 113 would ensure that the chairman of the Office for Legal Complaints could be removed only with the consent of the Lord Chief Justice rather than the Secretary of State. The amendment underlines the importance of ensuring the independence of the legal profession. It must be seen as absolutely essential, whether for the sake of consumers of legal services or that of our international reputation, that the profession’s major complaints-handler and redress system are entirely free from government influence. I beg to move.