UK: Judiciary makes U-turn over collecting strikers’ names

The UK Law Gazette

Striking barristers will no longer have their names passed to a senior judge for consideration of disciplinary action by the regulator for non-attendance at court.

In a letter seen by the Gazette, the senior presiding judge, Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, has told the leaders of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) that the judiciary has stopped collecting data from court staff about barristers who fail to attend hearings during the protest over legal aid fees.

‘It became clear that the data was incomplete and insufficient to allow for that proper consideration to take place,’ the judge wrote. He said that he had stopped collecting the information on 8 July and ‘all data previously collected has been deleted’.

The U-turn followed a meeting between Haddon-Cave and the chair and vice chair of the CBA, Jo Sidhu QC and Kirsty Brimelow QC, who expressed concern about the practice.

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