Mr. Tom Flynn:

I know that. We can only deal with the draft Bill as published. In the context of what is being proposed, the removal of any right to recover costs is a retrograde step. The majority of our members would probably consider that an administrative system is qualitatively a different right from a statutory right to recover costs. There are all sorts of concerns relating to that, which we have mentioned. One may not wish to feel sorry for the lawyers and that is fine but, looking at this pragmatically, our professional analysis is that regardless of whether the changes are complaint with the Aarhus Convention - one would get differing views in that regard - they will certainly lead to more litigation in the medium- to short-term, as well as more uncertainty. In that sense, one could argue that they are counter-productive.