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Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, we on these Benches broadly support the amendment that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, has moved so eloquently. On the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, which is plainly important, will the Minister confirm in her reply that nothing in the clause excludes the appointment to the Consumer Panel of a qualified lawyer who does not hold a practising certificate? My understanding of the clause is that the many lawyers who no longer hold practising certificates may be on the panel. Indeed, those of us who have served as chairmen or members of various tribunals and panels around the country at various times know the immense value that that cohort of people, who are often volunteers, give to the decision-making process at various levels. Secondly, we have heard from the Minister and ministerial colleagues during the debates on this Bill that it is for the board to make decisions, wherever possible, on how its functions are carried out. Surely it is right for the board that selects members of consumer panels to be able to make decisions on whether non-practising lawyers who hold practising certificates should be members of the Consumer Panel. I understand the direct answer to the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Clinton-Davis, to be, ““Yes, this is intended to cover people who hold practising certificates as solicitors, albeit not in fact practising themselves?. A large body of business does huge amounts of what one might loosely call block litigation—for example, in relation to debt collecting on a very large scale for credit card companies or councils that have not received payments of council tax. The lawyers who manage that kind of work are non-practising, but they are about as large consumers of legal services as one can imagine. I would suggest, in common with the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Wirral, that that group ought to be regarded as important consumers. In that context, would it not be right for the board, when it sets criteria and decides who should be appointed to the Consumer Panel, to be able, although not obliged, to select applicants from that cohort to become members of the panel?