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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I, too, am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, for going through the amendments in detail. I smile at the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford—it is a pleasure to see him joining us for the next part of the Bill. I will resist the temptation to reply to each of the amendments; I am sure that noble Lords will be grateful for that. We have been working closely with the Law Society and, in particular, representatives from the Solicitors Regulation Authority to update and modernise the powers in the Solicitors Act 1974. Schedule 16 already sets out a large number of amendments to the 1974 Act, which are necessary to ensure that the Law Society is sufficiently equipped to carry out its role as approved regulator under the new framework in the Bill. We accept that many of the amendments in this group seek to correct a number of anomalies that have arisen as a result of the changes that we have already made under Schedule 16. In addition, they make a number of alterations that are consistent with the powers conferred on the Law Society under the 1974 Act, as amended by Schedule 16. However, there are matters of detail that we need to resolve in discussions with the Law Society and the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland. I would be more than happy to accept the suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, and take the amendments away to consider them further—and to do so in a positive and helpful light. I hope that that will make up for the noble Lord having to read out his speech on the amendments and that he will be happy with what I have done.