Practising Certificate Fee (PCF) Consultation

30 October 2012

Update for the profession: the Bar Council has launched a consultation for the profession on the practising certificate fee (PCF).

The Bar Council receives over 60 per cent of its funding from the practising Bar. In the current financial year, that amounts to around £8m. This is recovered from the practising Bar via a compulsory Practising Certificate Fee (PCF), payable by every practitioner.

The way in which the PCF is allocated to individual practising barristers has not changed in three decades, whilst over that same period, the Bar itself has become a very different profession, operating in a much more challenging and competitive environment.

This consultation asks whether there is an appetite amongst the practising Bar to move away from the present 'year of Call' based allocation to one more reflective of each individual's practice. It also asks whether the current differential in PCF between employed and self-employed practitioners should be retained.

Strong views have been expressed about the need for change in the way in which the PCF is allocated. What this consultation seeks to establish is, first, the direction of any future change; and second, whether there is a strong enough consensus for that change to be implemented. Only by responding can members of the Bar influence the outcome. 

Please take the time to read the background information to the consultation available online here, and respond to the short online survey here before 28 November 2012. Any resulting changes to the method of collecting the PCF would be implemented from 2014/15.