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Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I could not agree more with the sentiment behind what the noble Lord is saying. It is important, not least in the debate on how alternative business structures will evolve and develop, to enable LDPs, as we have learnt to call them, to come into being as soon as possible. I need to get advice on the exact timetable as soon as possible to be sure about that, but I agree with the noble Lord wholeheartedly. I want to ensure that noble Lords recognise that I do not disagree with Sir David Clementi’s judgment. He supported, as I do, the development of the types of practices that the Law Society is seeking to regulate, but he recommended that we put in safeguards around these practices. In particular, he talked about the head of legal practice and the fitness-to-own tests. He also recommended that those should be subject to oversight by the board under the B+ model. We believe that, in Part 5, we are guaranteeing that we have these safeguards in statute and that they can be relied on across the regulatory framework, while making it clear precisely to whom they should apply. Taking on board the noble Lord’s point about wishing to move forward with this, which I endorse completely, I hope that he will feel able to withdraw his amendment.