Ministers lose legal shakeup vote

Ministers have lost a series of votes in the House of Lords over plans to regulate lawyers in England and Wales.

Peers backed amendments restricting the powers of the new Legal Services Board.

The board will oversee professional bodies including the Bar Council and Law Society, which deal with complaints against lawyers.

Crossbencher Lord Neill, a former Bar Council chairman, was backed in his call for the head of the judiciary to get a veto over board appointments.

The votes mean the Parliamentary "ping pong" continues over the Legal Services Bill, aimed at creating independent regulators for the legal profession and greater competition in legal services, continues.

'Negative consequences'

Conservative peer Lord Kingsland said ministers had promised the new board would not "micro manage or second guess regulators".

He moved an amendment stipulating that should it only be allowed to intervene when existing regulators had acted "unreasonably" - which was backed by 180 votes to 138.

For the government, Lord Hunt said it would stop the board intervening in anything other than "dire circumstances".

Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers also supported Lord Neill's amendment by 142 votes to 119, giving the Lord Chief Justice a veto over appointments to, and removals from, the board.

A government bid to exempt trade unions' legal advice from regulation was also defeated by Tory and Lib Dem peers by 174 votes to 138.