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Legal Services Bill [Lords]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, because I have in front of me the briefings from those bodies, each of which says that it supports the Government amendment. I do not know about their motivations and how strongly they feel about supporting the Government, but they say in writing that they support the provision; only Opposition Members say that they do not support the provision. The other suggestion that the hon. Gentleman mentioned is one that I made in a meeting with the Minister, and it relates to confirmation hearings for the chair of the board. If that suggestion becomes adopted practice, it might provide some comfort to the Opposition, because the representation of the public interest in such appointments should lie with Parliament, which represents the people of this country. I served on the Treasury Committee in the 1997 to 2001 Parliament, when we introduced confirmation hearings for the members of the Monetary Policy Committee. Admittedly, that is a non-statutory arrangement, which is not binding on the Treasury. Nevertheless, that process has survived to this day. I was interested in the Prime Minister's statement on constitutional change, when he expressed his interest in confirmation hearings. We could reach a stage where confirmation hearings are binding and statutory. They could reassure some hon. Members about their fear that appointments made by the Lord Chancellor, having consulted the Lord Chief Justice, would not show sufficient independence. I should like the House to put down a marker today, so that if we set up confirmation hearings, one of the posts that should be subject to them is the chair of the legal services board.