Neale: Backlog is unacceptable
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) is set to bring in external solicitors to help clear the sizeable backlog of applications by foreign lawyers wanting to requalify at the Bar.
The regulator has discovered that, contrary to its assumptions, the majority of applicants intend to practise in England and Wales, rather than just use the title as a marketing tool.
We have reported for several months on pressure on the regulator’s authorisation team to deal with a surge of applications for admission to the Bar as a transferring qualified lawyer (TQL).
New figures put before the most recent meeting of the BSB’s main board said that, in the year to 31 March 2024, more than half of the applications came from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India (particularly the first two), while a fifth were from solicitors qualified in England and Wales seeking to cross-qualify.
The team also deals with a host of other applications and this team continues to be the outlier in a general picture of operational improvement by the BSB. TQLs are the most common applications for waivers and exemptions that the BSB receives.
Despite a four-strong internal taskforce coming on stream at the start of 2024, new TQL applications – averaging around 50-60 a month – are outpacing clearances. Between April and June, 46 applications were decided, while 132 were received.
In all, the taskforce has decided 119 applications this year but there are 738 open applications.
Saima Hirji, interim director of regulatory operations, told the meeting that these were the most complicated and lengthy applications the authorisations team received.
A paper before the board said a “likely explanation” for the problem was that many applications “turn out to be incomplete when scrutinised by a caseworker despite the high volume of material submitted”, with some personal statements running to many tens of pages.
Ms Hirji said the quickest way to reinforce the taskforce was to bring in external support from a partner law firm and she predicted that, once this was in place, it would take a year to clear the backlog.
Extra administrative help is also being brought in to help with responding to the many chasing emails received.
The taskforce prioritises solicitors wanting to cross-qualify and foreign lawyers with offers of tenancy or pupillage.
The oldest open application dates back to December 2022 and the BSB is writing to all those who have been waiting for more than a year to check if they still want to go ahead.
Looking to the longer term to ensure no recurrence, Ms Hirji said the BSB would be talking to counterparts in other jurisdictions to map their qualifications and potentially sign memoranda of understanding to cut down the amount of checking that needs to be done for each application.
The BSB would also be looking at its approach to exemptions and waivers.
BSB director general Mark Neale acknowledged at the meeting that the backlog was “not acceptable”.
Since the issue came to the fore, Mr Neale has been saying that, for most part, TQLs were not seeking to practise in England and Wales but want to be called to the Bar for marketing purposes in their own jurisdictions.
However, he changed his tune at the meeting, revealing that the evidence showed most were in fact intending to practise here.
The taskforce has been asking applicants if they intend to practise here within next three years and 75% who have responded so far have said yes.
More broadly, Mr Neale reported a “positive” operational picture to the board.
The BSB assessed a record number of reports on barristers (556) and dealt with the highest number of authorisation applications for over a year (249) in the last quarter, while 77% of investigations concluded within the timeliness target, only three percentage points short of the target.
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