The new chairman of the Bar Council has outlined measures to improve the service offered by barristers.


Geoffrey Vos QC, head of chambers at 3 Stone Buildings, told the Gazette that compulsory advocacy training would be introduced for all practitioners of four to six years' call. He indicated this may go further in the future, but said advocacy training could not be extended overnight.



He said the council also planned to introduce a quality assurance scheme for publicly funded criminal work, in which barristers are given a grade depending on their seniority and the level of work they are able to do. This scheme will eventually be rolled out across the profession.



Mr Vos was also keen to see the establishment of the bar quality review board, a body to advise under-performing barristers on how to improve. 'We need to get across to the profession as a whole that we are either offering a high-quality service in advocacy and legal advice or we are nothing,' he added.



Catherine Baksi