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Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, as always, I am most grateful to the noble Baroness for her response. However, she will have heard from my noble friend Lord Hunt that he decided not to retable his amendment establishing a practitioner panel precisely because of the clear statements that he believed she made on Amendment No. 38 and its effect on Clause 10. In my submission the noble Baroness gave an undertaking in Committee that she accepted, in terms, Amendment No. 38 and went on to explain exactly what impact it had on Clause 10. I shall not press the matter further today except to say that, in the light of this debate, I am sure she will now look again at what she said. I submit to the noble Baroness that if she were not to come back at Third Reading with an amendment that accepted what was Amendment No. 38 in Committee, that would be an extremely serious matter for your Lordships’ House. I do not want her to be in any doubt about that. The noble Baroness raised one other matter in responding, which was almost a lament and which we have heard from her before—that policy decisions are not taken in this House but by a Minister in another place. I could understand that as being an explanation for many of the dilemmas in which she has found herself had this Bill started in another place. But the Bill started in your Lordships’ House; and although the Minister to whom the noble Baroness referred is a Minister in the Department for Constitutional Affairs, she is a Parliamentary Under-Secretary. The person in charge of the Bill is the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor, who is a Member of this House. So, with great respect, it cannot be true to say that the policy with respect to this Bill is made in another place. The policy is in your Lordships’ House; and the person who is ultimately responsible for it is the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor. I understand the dilemma of the noble Baroness; but I do not accept the consequences of her argument.