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Legal Services Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful for the tone in which noble Lords have brought back this amendment. I said that I would take it away. In Committee, I said that it would be a way of giving more confidence to your Lordships’ House. My difficulty is that I was unable to pursue the matter for two reasons. One is that it is my responsibility to look carefully at what the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee says. I hope noble Lords will agree that my record is completely exemplary in always doing what the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee tells me to do on every Bill that I have ever taken through the House—and I have clocked up quite a few by now. When I discussed this matter with my noble and learned friend, he was concerned that we should pursue what the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee tells us to do. When it suggests that the Government change their mind, we always take that on board. However, the Government are not being asked to change their mind. This powerful committee of your Lordships’ House—I am grateful to see the chairman of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in his place—does not require us to do that. Therefore, we believe that the Government should not necessarily move. Having said that, I then talked to officials about whether—