QASA rebels raise flag in north of England

Barristers on the Northern Circuit have voted to reject the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates in a secret ballot.

In a poll supervised by a retired circuit judge, 458 voted yes to the question 'will you refuse to sign up for QASA?', with two spoilt papers.

A total of 460 barristers agreed that if colleagues on the Western and Midlands circuits also refused to apply for QASA, they would refuse to accept instructions for the work.

In all, 478 barristers were contacted. None of them voted 'no' to either question.

"Virtually every criminal practitioner on the circuit has declared that they will not sign up for the current QASA scheme," Rick Pratt QC, leader of the Northern Circuit, said.

"We are not opposed to the principle of quality assurance. We welcome regulation which makes quality of advocacy the determining factor as to who should appear in court and at what level of case.

"But the current scheme does not achieve that aim. It rewards competence, not excellence. It will mean that the lowest common denominator becomes the norm rather than the very high standards which we have always valued.

"I hope that the results of this ballot will persuade the Bar Standards Board that this is not the standpoint of a 'noisy minority', but the overwhelming majority, both on this circuit and others.

"Simply put, the scheme is not fit for purpose. It must be re-visited and reconstructed into something which will give the public and profession what its name suggests - genuine assurance as to quality of advocacy in criminal courts."

The joint advocacy group, made up of the SRA, BSB and ILEX Professional Standards, announced changes to QASA at the end of last month, following a fourth consultation on the scheme.

Advocates will get two years instead of one to collect the judicial evaluations they need to qualify under QASA and QCs will get their own 'level 4QC'.

The scheme is due to be introduced in phases from September 2013, beginning with the Western and Midlands circuits.