Clause 15
Legal Services Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Simon Hughes (Party President, Cross-Portfolio and Non-Portfolio Responsibilities; North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
No. Such activity can take place on any day of the week, in any week of the year. There are many mutual organisations into which people pay. In another context, the Minister referred to the Royal Automobile Club and the Automobile Association. Many organisations have in-house lawyers who give legal advice. They are not trade unions, but potentially they have the same provision whereby two sorts of people give legal advice. There are in-house people from whom the organisation receives the service for which it signs up. They may commission a law firm if the issue is difficult or not run of the mill. I do not understand why the Government have come to the Committee—they have been reasonably criticised for so doing late in the day—with proposals that relate only to the trade unions, not to other organisations that have a similar relationship with their members.