Clause 51
Legal Services Bill [Lords]
6:30 pm
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley, Liberal Democrat)
The facts may speak for themselves in a legalistic sense, but I am not sure that they do in an accounting sense. I cannot understand why it is trust money and requires to be accounted for separately. I do not see how that can be, as under insolvency law, for example, one cannot merely keep that which has been received unless trust status is created for it, which cannot be done just by keeping it separately in a bank account. At the end of the day, the objective is to say that if the levy is £1 million and the income is only £900,000, the £900,000 does not get paid. The reality is that that amount would be secured against the organisation’s other assets, so I cannot see how it is of any advantage to anyone, or that it achieves the stated objectives.