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Legal Services Bill [HL]

I had hoped that the noble Lord would be more enthusiastic about my words. First, there are some issues of drafting about which we are now in discussion with the Bar Council. Lady Justice Smith, President of the Council of the Inns of Court, has asked us to think about these issues properly and states in her letter: "““I hope that you will urge Lord Kingsland to withdraw his amendments and that the Government will undertake to come back””." That is what I am seeking to do. The reason we have a definition of ““solicitor”” is that apparently it is already defined within statute, but the same is not true of ““barrister””. That may not be a satisfactory reason, but that is why the Bill treats this issue as it does. However, I am perfectly reconciled to the fact that if we are going to tackle this properly, we must make sure that the drafting is right. Once I have discussed this fully with the President of the Council of the Inns of Court, we shall be in a good position to move forward.