U-turn lets QC title live on for now (original) (raw)

The Queen will continue to confer the title Queen's Counsel on an elite band of advocates, at least for the next two or three years, under a reversal of government policy announced yesterday.

Under plans unveiled by the constitutional affairs secretary, Lord Falconer, the QC selection system will be replaced by an accreditation scheme run by the Bar Council and the Law Society, the professional bodies for barristers and solicitors. Names of successful applicants for the coveted badge will be forwarded to the constitutional affairs secretary, who will submit them to the queen.

He will retain a power to reject a name if he feels the selection has been flawed and not based on merit, but Lord Falconer said he hoped he would never exercise the power.

The proposals signal a u-turn on policy announced by the previous lord chancellor, Lord Irvine, when he suspended the 400-year-old QC system and announced plans for reform in April last year.

"Any notion that the role of recommending the conferment of the title QC - or any other title - to the Queen could be passed from the state to a profession is misplaced," he said at the time.

Lord Falconer denied yesterday that the policy had changed, since a minister would still act as an intermediary between the Queen and the professional bodies.

A new merit-based system of open competition, incorporating modern selection methods, will replace the old process under which the lord chancellor made the final decision after "secret soundings" by civil servants among the judges and legal establishment. The new scheme is expected to select more women, ethnic minority lawyers and solicitors.

The old process was widely criticised as unfair and opaque and condemned by the Office of Fair Trading as uncompetitive. An interim scheme will run for two or three years, pending the results of a review of the consumer aspects of legal services to be conducted by the Department for Constitutional Affairs. The scheme will be evaluated in the light of the review and a final decision taken on whether the QC title should survive.

Lord Falconer said he had decided to retain the title in the meantime because of evidence that the title QC brought international legal business to Britain. The first QCs are expected to be appointed under the new system next Easter.

The Bar Council and the Law Society welcomed the new scheme, though the Law Society said it was disappointed that the QC title would be retained, even temporarily.

"This is a missed opportunity to demonstrate to the public, users of legal services and lawyers of diverse backgrounds that the new system is a clean break from the flaws of the past," said the society's president, Peter Williamson.

Until now, successful applicants for silk - who are entitled to charge higher fees - have held the title for life without having to go through any further evaluation of their skills. The new system will introduce regular revalidation to maintain standards.