Lord Hunt, former senior partner of national firm Beachcroft, is a man used to tackling difficult issues, having been made coal minister by Margaret Thatcher in the midst of the miners' strike, and also been the person put in charge of the 'community charge', as he likes to call it. So he has been more than up to the challenge of battling with the government over certain aspects of the Legal Services Bill, as chairman of the joint parliamentary committee set up to scrutinise the draft legislation.

Speaking at a Smith & Williamson seminar on the Bill last week, he gave lawyers a glimpse of the cutting exchanges he has had with minister Bridget Prentice on the subject. When Ms Prentice cited the maze of '22 regulators' currently active in the legal sector as a key reason for the reforms, the Lord apparently pointed out that lawyers should count themselves lucky that they're not in the health sector, where there are 67 regulators - to which the minister responded with a chuckle.


Tackling the issue of why the government has changed the focus of the Bill from the public interest, which Lord Hunt favours, to the interests of the consumer - which he fears would put too much emphasis on low price - he has another clever point. If the government is catering to consumer interests, he pointed out to Ms Prentice, 'that means she will be canvassing the views of some 80,000 people currently detained at Her Majesty's pleasure'. Apparently the minister did not find that quite so amusing.