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Legal Services Bill [Lords]

That is a good try, and if I were attempting to protect my own profession, I too would probably try any last-ditch method that I could find. The situation was summed up well in the Lords debate by Lord Whitty, when he disagreed with his noble Friend Lord Borrie. On delegation back to the Bar Council, he said:"““Even though I recognise that its past performance has been somewhat better than that of the Law Society, I think that we are then back into the judge and jury territory.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 6 December 2006; Vol. 687, c. 1193.]" That is the point. The Bar cannot act as judge and jury, just as the Law Society has not managed that to date, and the Bill will help to increase the standing of the complaints that go before it. I do not agree with the argument of the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill). A lot of rubbish has been spoken today about how the Bill is somehow an attack on the independence of the law. That is absolute nonsense. Currently, the legal services ombudsman is appointed directly by the Lord Chancellor, with no remit from any outside body. The hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire (Mr. Vara) dismissed that as irrelevant, but it is very relevant. As I said earlier, it is important that the proposed board be seen to be totally independent from any form of legal intervention. I support totally the Nolan commission recommendations in this regard, and I agree with Conservative Front Benchers that the issue should be depoliticised. However, if the board is to have credibility, it should not be tainted in any way by the legal profession.