Schedule 1
Legal Services Bill [Lords]
12:00 pm
Simon Hughes (Party President, Cross-Portfolio and Non-Portfolio Responsibilities; North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
I hope to have the opportunity to advance my arguments later, but may I challenge the Minister on the idea that consumers think that the Lord Chief Justice is tied to the legal profession? I challenge her to produce any opinion poll that shows anything like the same problem with confidence in the judges as there is with confidence in the profession. Lawyers have a bad reputation, like estate agents and politicians, and people know that judges are traditionally drawn from the ranks of lawyers, but they do not regard judges as people in whom they cannot have confidence. The statement is just not true, and I honestly ask her to supply to the Committee any evidence of recent polling that suggests otherwise.