Clause 15
Legal Services Bill [Lords]
11:30 am
Bridget Prentice (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice; Lewisham East, Labour)
If the hon. Gentleman were to cut and paste anything that suggested for one moment that trade union members will get a lesser service than other consumers under the Bill, he would be very wrong indeed. As the hon. Member for Huntingdon constantly reminds me, because I constantly say it, the Bill is about putting the consumer at the heart of the legal system. That applies to trade union members as much as to consumers in any other forums.
I am talking about trade unions as an entity. Their members will be protected as much as anyone else. Lawyers working within trade unions will be as regulated as any others. I assure the hon. Member for Bournemouth, East that trade union members will get a standard of service that is as good as the standard that I want for every consumer. The TUC has made it clear that it wants to ensure that the services that it provides for its members are of the highest standard. We will ensure that that is the case, and he need not cut and paste anything other than that.