Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Debate between Lord Hunt of Wirral and Lord Martin of Springburn

Wednesday 14th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Wirral]

My Lords, in speaking to Amendments 146A and 148A, I wish to say how strongly I support in principle the Government’s proposal to ban referral fees. I declare my interest as a partner in DAC Beachcroft, the international commercial law firm. My amendments are intended simply to clear up some possible loopholes. Having just heard the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, I caution how important it is to have a blanket ban because any ban that is implemented has to work. However watertight the ban is—my amendments are intended to help the Government achieve that objective—it is critical that we also remove the incentive for referral and profit share by removing the excessive legal costs from the system. There are many vested interests here and a lot of money is at stake—too much money in my view.

At present, solicitors acting for claimants can still afford to pay out more than half of their fees to a third party whose only role is to buy and sell on the details of an injured person. That cannot be right. Amendment 146A would make a minor change to Clause 54(4) by inserting,

“which consist of or include damages”.

I raised in Committee the spectre of the current wording permitting the payment of a referral fee for some non-injury element of an injury claim, completely bypassing the Government’s intentions. I look forward to hearing my noble friend the Minister’s comments on that.

Amendment 148A would insert,

“whether received by the person referring prescribed legal business or not”,

into Clause 54(8). I highlighted in Committee this gap in the drafting which could be exploited simply by the way in which payment is routed. Again, I await my noble friend the Minister’s answer.

Finally, I would also be very interested to hear whether my noble friend can give this House a commitment about just how much of the excess cost can now be taken out of the system altogether, which is, frankly, a more effective remedy than tightening up the drafting.

[Lord Martin of Springburn]

My Lords, I wish to speak to Amendment 146 in my name. In doing so, I declare an interest as I have been a member of the Unite union for a long time. I am not having a go at the media on this matter but, often when trade unions are mentioned in the media, reference is made to trade union leaders. Not much is known about the activities of the lay officials and junior officers of a trade union. Tonight we have spoken about asbestos victims. A trade union would probably be the first port of call for a person who felt that they were suffering from the effects of asbestos inhalation. Apart from the serious matter of asbestos inhalation, your Lordships may be aware that even a National Health Service kitchen can be a very dangerous place for workers. They can fall, be scalded or be cut by the knives that they are using. After any injury such as that or any other injury relating to a person’s work, the first port of call is to the local trade union office, and an investigation is made before the matter is referred to a lawyer. Any of us who has run an office knows that photocopiers, heating, lighting and cleaning all cost money. It means that there should at least be some compensation for the trade union that is prepared to try to help that member before the member goes to a solicitor.