CBA Weekly Message – 03.02.15
CBA Chairman’s Message:
Tony Cross QC
Tuesday 3 February 2015
E: [email protected]
T: 07860 692693
Good news and a message of thanks to Sadiq Khan MP:
The message of the 12th January 2015 was a miserable offering. A very close pal, a lifelong CBA member and now a senior judge told me so. He was right. He questioned whether it was necessary to produce a Message every week. I told him that if he read my message closely, that I had formed the same view in September and had announced such back then. The Message though of the 12th, did contain the odd nugget of useful information. Just short of a month ago I was casting a cynical eye over what a future Labour Government would do HERE and it appeared that little was to change so far as the legal landscape was concerned so it was with great pleasure to receive the news that that the Shadow Lord Chancellor Sadiq Khan’s had made three promises that Labour will “abandon immediately the planned implementation of the current government’s two-tier contracts for criminal legal aid”, review the second 8.75% fee cut due this summer and “undertake an immediate review of how criminal legal aid is procured, working closely with the legal profession”, as published in The Guardian HERE.
You will not be surprised to learn that we have sought to maintain good relations not only with Government but also with the opposition. The Shadow LC and I have been in correspondence this week building upon our contact and if I may say so his approach throughout this has been welcome and refreshing. Fair play to him.
CPD – New BSB Project:
The Bar Standards Board are road-testing a new approach to regulating CPD, designed to produce a more effective, and user friendly, system. A pilot has been launched and invitations sent to members of the Bar to take part in a pilot of the new regime, full details HERE. It would be of great help to the profession as a whole if there is wide participation, giving the survey rigour and coherence. For those who take part, there will be waiver to the current CPD requirements for 2015.
Tony