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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I shall certainly seek to do that for the noble Lord. We have set up a system in response to a concern which noble Lords have also expressed: that the complaints system was not being handled effectively. Certainly, noble Lords have referred on more than one occasion in Committee to this as a real problem that they want to see addressed. It is a problem that has been recognised by the organisations concerned and indeed we have had many debates about whether we are simply building on what noble Lords felt could be considered to be failure rather than creating something new. We have responded to a problem. On top of that, we have to consider how best to provide an appropriate response, and who should pay. It is our view that a considered, phased approach of the kind I have identified is right. As I have already indicated, it is not unprecedented and it is an appropriate way of dealing with the issues here. We do not think that we should spend taxpayers’ money in this way. There are always competing priorities in government; in the end everything is political. We seek to do this in a right and appropriate manner to resolve an issue, and to make sure that we provide not only strong consumer confidence but a good service for practitioners and regulatory bodies. That is our principle. Noble Lords may choose to disagree with it, but that is where we stand.