I should like to break into this period of self-indulgence on the part of Opposition lawyers. I thought that the hon. Gentleman's point about free access to lawyers was especially interesting, but he quickly corrected himself.

This is a rather introspective dialogue, and I understand why the visitors who came into the Room earlier did not last long. Indeed, one of the officials beside me has started writing his will, on the basis that he thinks that he does not have long to live if the hon. Gentleman continues in his present vein.

The clause relates to the rights of lawyers, who have always struck me as worrying more about their income than about their clients. Does the Minister believe that the Bill gives the Government sufficient power to inhibit the collaboration of lawyers with criminals? We have spent an enormous amount of time discussing the position of lawyers and their need for protection, but I detect a lack of acceptance on the part of the Opposition that there is a problem with lawyers who are corrupt and dishonest and collaborate with criminals and without whom many of the difficulties in our society would not exist.

I hope that in his anxiety to be agreeable to the Opposition the Minister will not move away from the recognition that a serious problem is involved. I hope that he will reassure me that there are sufficient powers in the Bill and elsewhere not only to inhibit lawyers from collaborating with criminals but to catch and punish those who do.