Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates

On this page:

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:

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:

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 is now seeking the support of barristers and solicitor advocates to help shape our equalities and diversity programme of work for the QAA scheme.

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.

How can I get involved?

Focus Groups

We would like to hear from women and advocates from minority ethnic groups who are interested in taking part in focus groups that will take place from late October. The focus groups will enable us to:

Disability Practitioners Group

The data 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. 

To register your interest in participating in any aspect of this work, please contact: Sinead McDonnell on 020 7783 7421.

Further information

For further information on the QAA scheme, contact Louise Sowden, Project Manager on 0117 3023 132.

>back to top

 

Last updated: 09 November 2007

Documents
Links
No links
About Us [1] - About legal aid [2] - Community Legal Service (CLS) [3] - Criminal Defence Service (CDS) [4] - Site Map [5] - Help [6] - Document Archive [7] - Search [8] - Home [9] - LSC Online [o]
[Access Key]

© 2008 Legal Services Commission. All Rights Reserved.
Read our: Legal Disclaimer, Privacy and Copyright Notice