BC Bar Standards Board Voices Doubts Over Government's Plans For Quality Assurance in Criminal Defence Work
26 September 2007
The Board agreed its response to the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission’s June consultation paper at its meeting last week.
Originally suggested by Lord Carter of Coles’ report on legal aid, the consultation paper suggests advocates should be graded in four levels according to the skills required for particular levels of criminal work. Advocates would have to collect evidence of their competence, which would then be evaluated by Chambers or an independent panel. A national panel would ensure consistency.
In its response the BSB raises concerns over:
- whether the BSB should be involved in monitoring the scheme, and whether it will fit with the BSB's wider approach to quality and be transferable to the rest of the profession
- whether the grading should be advisory or mandatory, and whether there should be sanctions against advocates who take work above their grade
- whether grading advocates will adversely affect diversity
The BSB's submission says it doubts whether the proposed approach could be adopted for civil work and warns of 'confusion and inconsistency if there were any attempt to do so'. It also argues that any scheme should cover youth and adult magistrates' courts work, and not just the Crown Court, as currently proposed.
Commenting on its response, BSB Chair, Ruth Evans said:
'The BSB is committed to assuring quality at the Bar, but to take part in this scheme we would need to be satisfied that the standards required were proportionate and did not affect access to justice, and were consistent with those that the BSB itself wished to require of the profession.
'It is not clear either from the consultation paper what monitoring would involve. This, and the fact that a potentially costly scheme might be designed to benefit only one purchaser, gives us further cause for concern.
'The BSB hopes to continue to contribute to the development of the scheme and will watch the proposed pilot with interest.'
