Plans for a new era of "Tesco law" were formally unveiled today as the Government introduced its Legal Services Bill in the Queen’s speech.

The Bill, which will lead to the biggest shake-up in the UK legal profession in a generation, will allow non-lawyers to own and operate law firms for the first time. Until now, firms of solicitors and barristers’ chambers could only be owned by the lawyers themselves as partners.

The AA, the car breakdown and insurance group, and Halifax, the high street bank, have already begun offering limited legal services in anticipation of the changes. Both companies are outsourcing the work to external solicitors but will eventually be able to employ their own legal staff.

The Bill will also strip the legal profession's representative bodies of their ability to handle complaints against their members, setting up an independent Office for Legal Complaints.

Another new body - the Legal Services Board - will be created to oversee the regulation of the legal profession, while day-to-day control will remain with existing bodies such as the Bar Council and the Law Society.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, has indicated he will allow lawyers and other professionals such as accountants to go into business together for the first time.

Parts of The Bill, which is broadly based on the recommendations of Sir David Clementi, a respected Government troubleshooter, are fiercely opposed by the legal profession.

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