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Health and Social Care Bill

I support colleagues on all sides of the Committee in this argument. I found this extraordinary when I read it. After all the debate that we had about where we needed legal representatives—we in this House decided that we did not—to find it in the Bill was rather strange. I thought that we had decided at some of the highest levels that we did not need a lawyer—and I have a huge respect for lawyers. As some noble Lords have said, we do have a legal assessor. I have been an adjudicator in some curious places, such as the telecoms industry, and have adjudicated over situations involving large sums of money where whole companies could be put out of business if the adjudication went a particular way. The skills outlined by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, were more important to me than any legal advice, because what I needed was my legal assessor. You need a lawyer by your side, but if the chair is also a lawyer, there could be a real conflict. Given the way in which the Bill is framed, the noble Lord, Lord Walton, is absolutely right that there will be different sides to this. I found it strange that we did not think that the lawyers needed any training in chairing. I have had experience of brilliant chairing by lawyers and some pretty awful experiences too. Let us get the skills we need in order to get this right. I hope that the noble Baroness will feel that this is something she can take away to consider because at the moment it is a hostage to fortune and could undermine the work of the panels.