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I don't normally get involved in these things but I have expressed serious concerns about the SQE from the start and responded against it in the consultation.

There are all kinds of reasons why it is flawed. Also it is being rushed. People starting a university degree last year would were it not for this delay face it in 2020 and yet all kinds of issues are not settled yet so should a new student be planning for and saving for a GDL or not? A timetable of only 3 years so ridiculous for something so fundamental. They need 10 years at least and with loads of trials whilst people perhaps take both sets of exams so we can compare a target group of people.

My great uncle qualified around 1900 after a long articled clerkship without a degree but with passing exams etc as required in those days for non graduates. I am not against having a non graduate route in addition to our current arrangements but given more than half young people to go university these days we are in very different times. Also there are now student loans so there is no cost at all for your first degree unless you ever earn enough to pay it back so it is not exactly hard to go to university now.

We want the brightest people in law. Keeping a degree and having a TC as a requirement helps ensure good qualify candidates.

The idea you could set up in practice immediately is silly and dangerous too. You need a good few years under supervision of others before you should be let loose on the public.

I have no problems with the LPC being centrally marked to ensure consistency. When I did the Law Society finals there were just about only three colleges of law all under ownership of the college where you could sit it (and 50% by the way failed)