Part of Legal Services Bill [Lords] – in a Public Bill Committee at 12:00 pm on 19 June 2007.
I am grateful for the contributions of my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley and of the hon. Members for Enfield, Southgate and for Bassetlaw, and for the Minister’s response. There is a problem, and the amendment was a first stab at trying to address it. I do not want to be over-prescriptive or over-regulatory—that was never my intention—but I am happy to seek to withdraw the amendment and work with the Minister and her officials to get it to fit comfortably in the Bill, the codes and other things. Some people never get beyond the first encounter, and the amendment is intended to deal with circumstances in which the outcome of someone’s relationship with a firm is decided by the person with whom they deal. The position of that person, their authority and their confidence entirely determine that relationship.
If people do not know whom they are dealing with and do not understand their background or skill, or if they understand it wrongly or are misled, that will entirely influence how they decide to proceed. For example, let us take the case cited by my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Yardley. In family law cases that deal with difficult issues, a person might eventually summon the courage to take legal advice on how to take action to protect the interests of their child in a disputed case in which there are allegations of abuse or something similar. They see someone and come away thinking that they have received authoritative advice, when in fact the advice was provided by someone who had been there a week. That is the sort of thing that we need to ensure that people are clear about, and that is the nature of my concern. I am grateful for the Minister’s response, and I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.