The Bar Standards Board
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) regulates barristers and specialised legal services businesses in England and Wales in the public interest. It is responsible for: • setting the education and training requirements for becoming a barrister; • setting continuing training requirements to ensure that barristers’ skills are maintained throughout their careers; • setting standards of conduct for barristers; • authorising organisations that focus on advocacy, litigation and specialist legal advice;
their implementation on the BSB’s website at: https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/ qualifying-as-a-barrister/future-requirements/ The components of Bar training Training to become a barrister comprises three components. These are: • academic learning (gaining knowledge of the Law itself; this is usually fulfilled by a law degree or a Graduate Diploma in Law that covers the seven foundations of legal knowledge); • vocational learning (acquiring barristers’ core skills such as advocacy; up until 2019-20 this has usually been fulfilled by completing a BPTC course); and • pupillage or work-based learning (learning to be a barrister “on the job”; this is usually fulfilled by a pupillage). Until the new Bar Qualification Rules came into force, anyone wishing to qualify as a barrister was required to complete the three components in the sequential order set out above or, by exception, through an integrated academic and vocational course. The new rules provide greater flexibility by permitting Authorised Education Training Organisations (AETOs) to offer courses via a limited number of pathways: • a three-step pathway: academic, followed by vocational, followed by pupillage/work- based component (this is structurally the most similar to the previously mandatory pathway (the BPTC)); • a new four-step pathway: academic component, followed by vocational component in two parts, followed by pupillage or work-based component; • an integrated academic and vocational pathway - combined academic and vocational components followed by pupillage or work-based component. (this is structurally similar to the integrated pathway previously offered only by exception); and
• monitoring the service provided by barristers and the organisations it authorises to assure quality; and
• handling complaints against barristers and the organisations that it authorises, and taking disciplinary or other action where appropriate. Training to become a barrister is changing In April 2019, new Bar Qualification Rules came into force. The new rules are designed to ensure that training to become a barrister is more accessible, affordable and flexible while maintaining the high standards of entry expected at the Bar.
The BSB will be implementing various aspects of the new qualification rules
between April 2019 and September 2021. The main reason for taking a phased approach to implementation for some elements is to ensure that prospective barristers are not disadvantaged as a result of the introduction of the new rules. For example, students currently on, or yet to complete, the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC), and those planning to start the BPTC in September 2019, will have the opportunity to complete the course as normal, with transitional arrangements up until Spring 2022. The final new enrolments on the BPTC in its current form will be in September 2019.
There is more information about the new Bar Qualification Rules and the phasing of
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