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Legal Services Bill [HL]

Again, I am grateful to the noble Lord for raising this issue. Clause 184 maintains the rights and privileges of solicitors preserved under Section 88 of the Solicitors Act 1974. This is a saving provision which recognises, as legislation has done since the 18th century, the low regulatory risks associated with the roles undertaken by solicitors to the Crown and other public departments. This role has always been, and remains, very different from the role carried out by solicitors working in the private sector, either employed or self-employed, since government solicitors, who are already subject to separate regulation, do not generally provide advice or other services to the public or hold client money. Instead, government solicitors provide advice and representation to the Government and not to the public, and the regulatory risk they present is quite different from the risk represented by solicitors providing services to the public. Similarly, the Treasury Solicitor, solicitors to other public departments, the solicitor to the Church Commissioners and the solicitor to the Duchy of Cornwall have distinct roles in advising the State, and the saving in Clause 184 and Section 88 of the Solicitors Act extends to the functions carried out by those office holders. It is important to remember that regulation should be appropriate and proportionate—a word that has been used a great deal in this Committee—and targeted where action is needed. The Government provide a comprehensive training and development programme for their lawyers which ensures that they are competent to carry out the duties they are charged with and is therefore appropriate given the context in which they operate. An additional requirement to hold practising certificates serves no additional benefit. While the Bar Council was statutorily recognised as a professional regulator of the Bar in 1990, noble Lords will know well that it was not until 1999 that it was empowered to levy a fee for a right to practise. But the question of who is a practising barrister and who requires a certificate remains in the hands of the Bar Council and is not—as in the case of solicitors—a matter of legislative definition. There is, therefore, no equivalent statutory exemption for government barristers, but that does not mean that we should remove the exemption for government solicitors. I therefore reject the amendment and hope that the noble Lord will withdraw it.