Referral fees in the Lords

On 1 November, the second day of the Report Stage of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill in the Lords, the Government tabled a series of new clauses, numbers 18 to 22, which would make it an offence for regulated persons (solicitors, barristers, claim management companies and insurers) to accept work on the basis of a referral fee, to pay or to receive referral fees. In the Bill as amended, new clauses 18 to 22 have become clauses 54 to 58.