SRA urges advocates to register as deadline looms
Three weeks before the deadline under the quality assurance scheme for advocates (QASA), a quarter of criminal advocates have not yet notified the Solicitors Regulation Authority of their intention to practise after 2013, the regulator has revealed.
By 21 September all solicitors and regulated European lawyers wishing to undertake criminal advocacy in England and Wales from January next year must notify the regulator of their intention to do so. To date, just under 7,500 of the estimated 10,000 criminal advocates have completed the notification process, according to the SRA.
From spring 2013 QASA will provide a system of accreditation for all criminal advocacy working in the magistrates’ and Crown courts, whether carried out by solicitors, barristers or legal executives. The notification process is the first step in becoming accredited under the new scheme.
SRA executive director Richard Collins said: ‘We want to ensure that key stakeholders are aware of these important deadlines and are able to respond while there is still time.
‘The SRA is committed to continuing stakeholder engagement during the consultation process and has organised a number of consultation workshops with key bodies,’ he said.
The Bar Standards Board does not require barristers looking to practise as advocates to comply with any notification process before the scheme commences. Instead, the BSB says it will focus its resources on the registration process, which is due to begin in January.
QASA was designed by a joint advocacy group consisting of the BSB, ILEX Professional Standards and the SRA. A final consultation on the design of the scheme ends on 9 October.
Comments
Regulatory oversight?
I'm struggling to understand why a person with Higher Rights (i.e. at least level 2 under QASA) is still required to accredit under the SRA's MCQ to become a duty solicitor?
QASA
'Continuing stakeholder engagement'. My English teacher would have put a red pencil through this and the word 'jargon!' would have appeared in the margin.
Pen Pushers and Beancounters? You decide!
Dear All
The people at the top running the SRA have interesting back grounds; some people are mean and spiteful enough to say this is why they have no idea what they are doing. Shame on such people I say. Shame on you. I know for a fact the people at the top have been given very clear guidance on what is an arse and what is an elbow (and coloured wall charts) and have had stickers applied as appropriate.
Antony Townsend - Chief Executive SRA: -
"Antony took up his post in 2006, having been Chief Executive at the General Dental Council (GDC) from 2001.
"At the GDC he led a large reform programme to modernise dental regulation involving legislative, structural and operational change and including the extension of regulation to new groups of dental professionals.
"Before this, Antony held a number of senior roles at the General Medical Council, including Director of Standards and Education, and Head of Conduct.
"In all these roles, he worked extensively with the regulators of other professions, consumer organisations, professional representatives and Government. His earlier career was with the Home Office, where he worked primarily on criminal justice issues."
Obviously Antony is well very qualified to tell solicitors how to run their practices. After working in the dental world all he has to say is "Open wide chaps here it comes" and solicitors everywhere can then brace themselves for the expected pain.
Richard Collins OBE Executive Director of Policy, Standards, Strategy and Research Solicitors Regulation Authority
"Richard Collins is the Executive Director for Policy, Standards, Strategy and Research at the SRA. He joined the SRA in September 2010. Immediately prior to this appointment, he spent 18 months as Practice Director at a leading national criminal defence and human rights specialist law firm.
"Richard joined the civil service in 1982 with periods at the Lord Chancellor's Department, working on justice policy and OFTEL, focusing on the regulation of major telecoms providers. Following a period at the Law Society, he then joined the Legal Aid Board (subsequently the Legal Services Commission) in the early 1990s. During his time at the LSC Richard was responsible for civil legal aid policy and then business planning and performance before becoming the first head of the Criminal Defence Service in 2000. He was then appointed Executive Director for Policy during which time he worked closely with Lord Carter of Coles on his review of legal aid. Richard left the LSC in 2008.
"Richard was awarded the OBE in 2009 for services to the administration of justice."
Civil servants who have never been out in the real world of work are by far the best people to tell everyone what to do so that is all right then!
I have engaged the services of Suem, Grabbitt and Runne Solicitors based in the city of London if Antony or Richard wish to complain.
It really would be rather nice if solicitors were regulated by people who had real experience at the coal face.
I gave up the law out of exasperation at the abosolutely bonkers proliferation of rules and compliance requirements and the cost of it. You would think the SRA and the Law Society did not want prople to practise as solicitors.
All the best
C C Leonard Crane (Well out of it.)
Pen Pushers and Beancounters? You decide! (Spelling)
Apologies about the spelling.
10,000 IS AN ESTIMATE. ONLY
10,000 IS AN ESTIMATE. ONLY HALF ACTUALLY DO ANY ADVOCACY THEMSELVES
Looks suspiciously like the Bar putting....
... solicitor advocates back in their place (as the Bar sees it).
The system
" Advocates may progress through the four levels (subject to rights of audience) by demonstrating through assessment that they meet the required standard for the next level."
"Advocates' level and method of qualification dictates how they must be assessed, whether by way of assessed CPD, assessment organisation, or judicial evaluation."
"Trained judges in the Crown Courts may assess advocates of their own initiative if they have concerns about performance, and submit such evaluations directly to the regulators for consideration."
Quotes from the Bar Standards Board.
It seems as if there is a plan for advocacy to become a discrete area of practice with its own regulatory regime, admission by application and examination / assessment.
Wasn't that supposed to be the job of the Bar?
Nigel Morris-Cotterill
Solicitor, Retired
Author Sun Tzu and the Art of Litigation.
The SRA
Being a recently retired Solicitor I thoroughly agree with the above comments of Leonard Crane and I too am very happy "to be out of it". The people I fear for are those who have recently done Law at university with a view to entering a "profession" and enjoying a career which would be fulfilling. Instead it will be filled full of needless bureaucracy organised by needless civil servants!