Barristers working in youth courts to undergo compulsory registration in order to improve representation of young people, BSB announces

New measures to improve the quality of advocacy in youth courts have been announced by the Bar Standards Board (BSB).

While there are some good advocates working in youth courts, standards are variable – with too many vulnerable young people not receiving quality representation. The BSB has now published guidance for barristers working in the field, setting out an essential set of competencies which all advocates who work with young people are expected to have. This marks the first stage of the BSB’s planned reforms, which will also include compulsory registration for barristers practising in the youth courts later in 2017. Compulsory registration should enable the BSB to better identify and take steps to resolve situations where barristers are not displaying the specialist skills needed to work with young people.  

Sir Andrew Burns, the BSB’s chair, said: “Whilst these measures will, I believe, go a long way to addressing advocacy standards, I call upon the Ministry of Justice to look at the value that the justice system in England and Wales places more generally on youth court work in order to ensure that young people, at a very vulnerable moment in their lives, always have access to really competent representation.”

Lord Carlile of Berriew CBE QC, member of the House of Lords and expert in the field of youth justice, welcomed the announcement. He commented: “I welcome and support the new approach announced today by the Bar Standards Board to improve the standards of advocacy in youth court proceedings. They demonstrate a common-sense and workable way to tackle this very important problem within our justice system.”