Clause 11
Legal Services Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Simon Hughes (Party President, Cross-Portfolio and Non-Portfolio Responsibilities; North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
My hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley and I have added our names to the amendment. We are strongly persuaded that it should be introduced. It is consistent with practice in other regulatory bodies with a consumer panel. I gather that Ofcom’s consumer panel has the power to carry out research into any relevant area that it sees fit.
If we are to get good people to serve on the consumer panel, one of the things that they will want to know is that they are free to set their own agenda rather than having it set for them. The hon. Member for Huntingdon and his friends realised that there is a cost implication, and I thought that where that might fall would be left for the discussion. There is a potential cost implication, although the consumer panel will have a support system. It will take additional time if the panel decides that it must assess what it ought to do as well as what it is asked to do and work through the programme, so it is appropriate to debate where the additional cost will fall. Perhaps amendment No. 223 is the right proposal; it may be something else, but my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley and I are clear that the panel ought to have the power to take initiatives. I hope that the Minister is entirely signed up to this pro-consumerist amendment.