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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I support the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, in his Amendment No. 139H and those associated with it in the group, which seek to ensure that the start-up costs of the Legal Services Board and the Office for Legal Complaints are not fully met by the professions, which would unquestionably be damaged by that. I strongly take the point made by the Bar Council of the potential impact on young barristers. It is not self-evidently true that those being regulated should bear the cost of regulation. Regulation is being introduced—not phased in over the period—to protect the public interest and, if the full costs of establishment are be met by the professions, there must be a concern that those costs would be lumped on to those who have to purchase the services of the professions. Such a concentration of the burden is unacceptable. It is desirable that these regulatory supervision changes are phased in as smoothly as possible, and thus become as acceptable as possible. It is unlikely that the PricewaterhouseCoopers regulatory impact assessment, which predicted an absence of increases in the number of complaints, will be met. That prediction is slightly surprising, given the extent of dissatisfaction with the existing complaints procedures and the probability that the failure of the present system has acted as a disincentive to pursuing existing courses. Consequently, we can anticipate that there will be somewhat increased costs, which I hope can be shared between the general public and the professions, if the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, is accepted.