In a joint statement, the Bar Council’s Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Cree and the Bar Standards Board’s Director General Mark Neale said:
"The General Council of the Bar (GCB) has suffered a malicious cyber attack. Action was taken swiftly and required taking our IT systems offline in order to stop the attack and prevent any data loss. Our priority remains the protection of our IT systems and data from further attack. We do not believe any data has been lost. We are doing all that we can to fix the problem as soon as possible. Our emails and MyBar have been temporarily unavailable, and Authorisation to Practise and Court ID cards have both been extended. We are working at pace with our cyber security partners to cleanse and restore all systems and services and extend security arrangements. The attack has been reported to the ICO, National Cyber Security Centre and the Police. We apologise to anyone who has had difficulties in contacting our organisations during this time."
Further information (updated 9 May 2022) -
Authorisation to Practise -
The deadline has now been extended for a second month to 30 June 2022.
https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/resource/authorisation-to-practise-deadline-extended.html
Professional users' courts and tribunals access scheme -
HMCTS have agreed to extend ID cards due to expire on 30 April 2022 to 31 May 2022.
https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/bar-council-services/for-barristers/professional-users-court-access-scheme.html
Contact information -
The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board remain available to contact via the telephone switchboard on 020 7611 1444
The Bar Council is experiencing some technical difficulties at the moment which are affecting our members' access to MyBar and the Direct Access Portal.
All other Bar Council systems are still functioning, including emails, the Bar Council website, Pupillage Gateway, Ethics & Practice Hub, and Wellbeing at the Bar website.
The Authorisation to Practise deadline has now been extended for a second month, to 30 June 2022, so all those who currently have practising certificates can continue to practise without the need to contact The General Council of the Bar of England and Wales. In the meantime, those who need a practising certificate because they are starting or returning to practice, can be authorised without a certificate if they email records@barcouncil.org.uk. For authorisation to practise without a provisional practising certificate please email contactus@barstandardsboard.org.uk. The expiration date for the Professional Users Courts and Tribunals Access Scheme has also been extended until 31 May 2022 and we will begin this year’s renewal process as soon as we are able to do so.
We apologise if you have had difficulty contacting us during this time. Read our joint statement.