- A new framework should be introduced that will be based on what solicitors must know, understand and be able to do at the point at which they qualify; that is, it will be an outcomes-based framework.

- The Law Society should prescribe the outcomes that must be achieved - and demonstrated - by individuals before they can be admitted to the roll.

- The required outcomes will focus only on the essential knowledge, skills and abilities that all solicitors should have at the point of qualification, leaving scope in the qualification scheme for providers to build in and address different areas of practice from the great range of work that solicitors do.

- The Law Society should not be prescriptive about how the outcomes should be achieved; that is, it should not specify the length or structure of the pathways to qualification.

It should be rigorous in its requirement that the outcomes must be demonstrated and assessed in a reliable way before an individual can proceed to admission.

- Although the current, staged approach to qualification would continue, at least for the foreseeable future, new pathways to qualification could emerge and would be encouraged, including approaches that would wholly or partially integrate the present academic, vocational and training contract stages of qualification.

- Providers, whether teaching institutions or law firms or other organisations that can provide an environment in which trainees can develop their professional competence, would be invited to design pathways or partial pathways to qualification that would enable students to achieve and be assessed against all, or elements of, the required outcomes.

The Law Society would need to be satisfied that the stated outcomes would be achieved and demonstrated by students following that pathway before it could be recognised as a route to qualification.

- Stand-alone stages that would address specific elements of the overall outcomes would also be encouraged, to facilitate movement between providers, to accommodate providers that wished only to offer particular stages of the qualification scheme and students who did not want to commit themselves at an early stage to following a full pathway to qualification.

- The required outcomes could only be achieved and demonstrated by an individual who had undertaken a significant period of work-based learning under the supervision of a solicitor (typically over a period of two years).

- A formal assessment of individuals' understanding of the values, behaviours, attitudes and ethical requirements of solicitors should be introduced just prior to the point of qualification, to highlight the importance of these attributes and to screen away from the profession any individuals who, despite typically some six years of preparation, had failed to understand the professional responsibilities of a solicitor.