The three regulatory bodies have issued a fourth and final consultation on the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates (QASA) - the deadline for responses is 9 October. There have been improvements. The table of the cases which fall to the four levels of the scheme has been simplified. Solicitors who undertake non-trial work in the crown court will continue to be able to do so and will come within the scheme. However, there has been no movement on key aspects to which particular exception has been taken by solicitor advocates, notably judicial evaluation will apply to all trial advocates in the crown court and above, the costs of accreditation have still to be published and all solicitors will lose their rights of audience in the magistrates' court five years after qualifying unless they are accredited under QASA.
Over the summer, solicitors who expect to be affected by QASA have been requested to notify the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) – some 8,000 have done so. The scheme will come into operation in the new year and will be rolled out in phases. Advocates will be required to register with their regulator as follows:
- Midlands and western circuits - between 14 January and 12 April
- South eastern circuit - between 17 June and 13 September
- North, North west and Wales circuits - between 16 September and 13 December
Thereafter no advocate will be allowed to appear in the criminal court without QASA accreditation.
Provision has been made for specialist practitioners who appear in the criminal courts in cases which are not brought by the Crown Prosecution Service or the Serious Fraud Office, for example, planning, environmental, local government and regulatory specialists.
There are also circumstances where specialist practitioners would be permitted to undertake criminal advocacy – where an advocate is appearing in a case with a hybrid indictment where the primary offence is outside the definition of criminal advocacy, for example, financial regulation matters that include an element of fraud; or where the advocate has been instructed to appear in a case in the criminal court within the definition of criminal advocacy as a result of their specialism, for example, a special purpose junior brought in to advise and deal with the effect of trust law on a fraud prosecution.
The regulators intend to monitor the frequency of specialist practitioners appearing in the criminal courts and the cases in which they are involved and will keep these arrangements under review. In-house solicitors may be able to take advantage of these exemptions from the scheme.
Steven Durno, Law Society policy adviser