We have discussed the issue of the concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice in appointments of members of the Legal Services Board with the Secretary of State’s Consumer Advisory Panel, established to advise on the Ministry’s programme of reform of legal services regulation and delivery. The panel’s view was that peers’ amendments to require the concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice in appointments to and dismissals from the board should be overturned.
We have also had a number of separate meetings with a broad range of consumer organisations during the passage of the Legal Services Bill. The issue of concurrence has been discussed at several of those meetings and all such organisations were opposed to the amendments made in the House of Lords on Lord Chief Justice concurrence.