Only two days after the report's publication, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Stephen Byers implemented the first OFT recommendation by announcing that the professions should be fully subject to competition law. Schedule 4 of the Competition Act 1998 allowed professional rules to be excluded from the scope of the legislation. Indeed, many lawyers will applaud the OFT for pushing the Law Society on MDPs. However, the bar is seething at the assault upon the way its members practise. But Bloom says that the OFT has heard from many barristers, including a number of QCs, who have applauded their recommendations.
Bloom flatly rejects the charge.
Our concern is benefiting the consumers and, in doing that, the public interest is of course an important part of it. In answer to the criticism, Vickers will be writing to the Bar Council to set out where the public interest is covered in the report. But it is hard to imagine that the letter will offer much comfort to those practitioners opposed to the reforms. Amlot argues that public interest embraces more than just giving consumers a better deal. He says that it also involves a consideration of the importance of a strong framework for justice, which includes an independent legal profession.