Background Part 2: Courts and Justice Section 24: Appeals relating to regulation of the Bar
35.Judges have long exercised an appellate jurisdiction in relation to the regulation of barristers. Since 1873 judges of the High Court have been exercising this function as part of their “extraordinary functions” under what is now section 44(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981. The current regulatory arrangements of the Bar Council (as set out in Bar Training Regulations made by the Bar Standards Board and the Hearing before the Visitors Rules 2010) provide for disciplinary decisions of the Council of the Inns of Court and decisions taken by the Bar Council’s qualifications committee and its panels to be appealed to the Visitors. This includes decisions about professional misconduct, satisfaction of requirements for a person to be admitted to an Inn or called to the Bar, the conduct of students, the registration of pupillages and the approval of pupil supervisors. The historical jurisdiction of the Visitors is quite wide, however, and includes all decisions relating to the conduct of an Inn’s affairs, such as the letting of chambers or payment of dues.
36.In December 2009 the Ministry of Justice consulted on a draft Civil Law Reform Bill(15) which included proposals to transfer the jurisdiction of the Visitors of the Inns of Court to the High Court; that draft Bill was not taken forward. Baroness Deech, Chair of the Bar Standards Board, tabled what is now section 24 of the Act at Report stage in the House of Lords (Official Report, 4 December 2012, columns 605 to 607) to abolish the jurisdiction of judges to sit as Visitors under section 44(1) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 and enable appeal to the High Court.