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Legal Services Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 565A: 565A: Schedule 17, page 264, line 9, leave out ““a qualified”” and insert ““an”” The noble Lord said: I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 566 to 586, 587A to 596 and 651. These are minor and consequential amendments that address a number of anomalies which have arisen as a result of amendments to the Administration of Justice Act 1985 and the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990. For example, we have brought forward amendments to remove references to ““complaints”” in both Acts, avoiding confusion with Part 6 of the Bill. We have also discussed with the Council for Licensed Conveyancers the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, in Committee. These amendments give the council additional powers to allow it to delegate its functions further, to directly reprimand a recognised body and to remove the requirement for an accountant’s report to be prepared by a person qualified as company auditor under the Companies Act 1989 in favour of allowing those accounts to be audited by an accountant. We are persuaded that these powers are necessary to ensure that the council can effectively and efficiently discharge its regulatory functions, so this group of amendments also covers those matters. I beg to move.