The starting gun for the long-awaited 2005 Queen's Counsel (QC) competition will be fired next Tuesday, the Gazette has learned.

With the exception of the honorary status given to Mike O'Brien MP when he became Solicitor-General, no new silks have been appointed since 2003 when the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, announced the award would be suspended pending consultation.


The old system for appointing QCs had been roundly criticised, in particular for its reliance on so-called secret soundings. The Office of Fair Trading had also called for the award to be scrapped on the grounds that it was anti-competitive.


The current Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, reprieved the rank in June 2004, subject to a reformed selection process.


The Law Society - which had in the past campaigned against the system - and the Bar Council struck a deal last December on how to reform the system to make it fairer and more transparent (see [2004] Gazette, 2 December, 1).


An independent selection panel with professional, judicial and lay membership was announced in April.


Solicitor-advocates were first invited to apply for silk in 1995, but so far only eight solicitors have been appointed out of 53 applicants.


The Society hopes that the new system will increase the number of solicitor-advocates, of whom there are now more than 2,000, making the grade as QCs.


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