Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates

On this page:

Recommendation 5.3
Working groups, Consultation and the Reference Group
Joint Working
Have your say on Equalities and Diversity
Further information

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are working with others to develop a Quality Assurance Scheme for Criminal Defence Advocates (QAA). This is a multi-agency initiative comprising representatives from the LSC/MoJ, the Bar Council, Bar Standards Board, Law Society, Solicitors Regulation Authority, Judiciary, Crown Prosecution Service and other key stakeholders.

Recommendation 5.3

The QAA project was initiated as a response to a recommendation in the report Legal Aid: a market based approach to reform.

Recommendation 5.3 is: “A proportionate system of quality monitoring based on the principles of peer review and a rounded appraisal system should be developed for all advocates working in the criminal, civil and family courts.”

“This system should be developed through a process chaired by a member of the judiciary in partnership with the Bar Council, Law Society, Legal Services Commission and Ministry of Justice to ensure it covers all advocates with relevant rights of audience in these courts.”

“The new quality monitoring system should be developed in the first instance for publicly funded criminal advocates, then for publicly funded family and civil advocates, and ultimately for all advocates.”

Working groups, Consultation and the Reference Group

A working group was established in August 2006, initially chaired by Lord Justice Thomas and subsequently by Amanda Finlay, Director, Legal Services Funding Policy and Regulation at the MoJ. Representatives on the group were drawn from:

Judiciary
Bar Council
Bar Standards Board
Law Society
Solicitors Regulation Authority
Legal Aid Practitioners Group
Solicitors’ Association of Higher Court Advocates
Institute of Barristers Clerks
Ministry of Justice
Crown Prosecution Service
Legal Services Commission

In June 2007 a joint LSC/ MoJ consultation paper Creating a Quality Assurance Scheme for Publicly Funded Criminal Defence Advocates was published.

The analysis of responses to the consultation was published December 2007. Following this publication, a Reference Group, comprising all bodies represented on the Working Group, was established to replace the previous Working Group.

Background information on the scheme can be found at www.legalservices.gov.uk > About us > Consultations > Closed.

A pilot for publicly funded criminal defence advocates is planned for 2009 followed by a full Impact Assessment, evaluation and consultation to inform proposals for a final scheme.

Joint Working

An initial impact assessment (IA) accompanied the consultation paper published in June 2007. The IA highlighted the lack of available data on many areas relevant to determining the likely impact of the scheme on the profession.

Therefore, in conjunction with the Bar Council the LSC conducted a detailed data survey covering all practicing barristers in England and Wales. The purpose of the survey was to obtain important information on the personal demographics of employed and self-employed bar including:

categories and volumes of work
proportion of time spent and income derived from legal aid practise
career breaks and caring responsibilities
education

5,260 barristers responded to data survey, this was an unprecedented response and has given us comprehensive data on key equalities areas as well as data for a full and thorough Impact Assessment for the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QAA).

Have your say on Equalities and Diversity

The QAA project team, in partnership with the Bar Council, is running a series of focus groups in London and Manchester to understand more about the issues identified in last year’s barrister survey affecting practice for women barristers and barristers from black and minority ethnic groups (BME). We are also holding a similar focus group for barristers of up to 10 years call in partnership with the Young Barristers’ Committee who will be providing the delegates. We are also working with the Law Society and SRA to develop our equalities and diversity work with solicitor advocates.

We are seeking the help of women and BME barristers who do, or who have done, some legal aid work in crime or civil. We need the input of barristers who are interested in coming along to the workshops to share their experience about barriers and opportunities encountered in their practice, potential barriers or opportunities the QAA scheme might create or exacerbate and how we might meaningfully address these in the QAA pilot.

Why should I support this work?

Data from the Law Society and data we recently collected with the Bar Council has raised a number of equalities issues we now need to explore in more detail. In particular, we need to fully understand issues reported around differences in pay and types of work between men and women and White and BME advocates, and the impact reported on type of cases people with caring responsibilities are able to take on.

We need to work directly with advocates to ensure we take proper account of equality and diversity factors in the design, implementation and evaluation of the QAA pilot planned for next year. This work will inform proposals for a final scheme.

How can I get involved?

Following the Bar survey, in partnership with the Bar Council, we are holding 4 focus groups in London and Manchester. We are seeking volunteers to attend these focus group to:

explore the equalities issues arising out of the survey on gender and ethnicity in more detail
work directly with barristers to find workable solutions in the QAA scheme for any barriers identified
identify what equalities areas need to be thoroughly monitored and evaluated in the QAA pilot to inform proposals for a final scheme.

We are calling for women and advocates from minority ethnic groups to register an interest for these focus groups. We are looking for representation from women barristers both in the BME and women’s focus groups.

Focus Groups dates and venues

Focus Groups	BME Focus Group	BME Focus Group	Women's Focus Group	Women's Focus Group
Date	Thursday 30th October	Wednesday, 12th November	Tuesday, 4th November	Tuesday, 11th November
Time	6-8pm	6-8pm	6-8pm	6-8pm
Chair	Oba Nsugbe QC	Khadim Al Hassan	Kim Hollis QC	Fiorella Brereton
Venue	7 Bedford Row, WC1R 4BS London	King's Chambers, Manchester	7 Bedford Row, WC1R 4BS London	King's Chambers Manchester

Focus Group for Solicitor Advocates

Work is underway to engage with the Law Society, SRA and Solicitors’ Association of Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) to agree a similar way forward for solicitor advocates. We hope to run an additional focus group specifically for solicitor advocates in the near future. The QAA project will be presenting at the SAHCA annual conference on Saturday 15th November.

Disability Practitioners Group

The data we now have highlights that nearly 8% of barristers and 2.3% of solicitors in private practice have a disability or health problem. The QAA project is striving to work with those advocates to get first hand their views on potential barriers the QAA scheme might present and to engage them directly in the design, implementation and monitoring stages of the pilot. A focus group for advocates with a disability or health problem are currently being planned.

Further information

If you would like to attend one of the focus groups or require further information please contact Sinead McDonnell on 020 7783 7421 or email sinead.mcdonnell@legalservices.gov.uk.

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Last updated: 09 November 2007