QASA accreditation delayed until September

Criminal advocates will start to get accreditation under the QASA scheme in September this year, the Joint Advocacy Group (JAG) announced this afternoon.

The scheme was due to be up and running at the start of this year.

The first phase will cover the Midlands and West Midlands circuits and run until 10 January 2014. The scheme handbook will be published in June.

JAG, made up of the SRA, BSB and Ilex Professional Standards, had previously announced that they would reveal the new timetable for implementation by the end of this month, a deadline which expires tonight.

A spokesman for JAG said there was a “need to ensure that there is adequate time for communication with the profession on the detail of the scheme and what will be expected of advocates who come within it”.

He said a programme of QASA communication events would be published “in due course” and details of the final scheme would be published on the QASA website.

The spokesman said that by the time final plans were submitted to the Legal Services Board at the beginning of May 2013, the “elements of the scheme that required further consideration in the light of responses to the fourth consultation will have been resolved”.

Phase 2 of the implementation programme will run from 10 March 2014 to 13 June 2014 and cover the South Eastern circuit.

The final phase, covering the Northern, North East, Wales and Chester circuits, will run from 30 June 2014 to 3 October 2014.

In a separate development, the SRA has announced that it will begin its revocation process tomorrow for solicitors who have failed to renew their PCs.

The regulator said it had already been in touch with firms and sole practitioners warning of impending action.

Revoking the authorisation of a firm or individual solicitor means that they can no longer provide reserved legal services.