The UK Law Soc Gazette writes
Lawyers exempt from the Solicitors Qualification Examination because they qualified abroad may have to spend £200 to prove to the Solicitors Regulation Authority they are proficient in the English language. However the required score in the test has been lowered from the current ‘unnecessarily demanding’ level.
The SRA currently seeks evidence of proficiency when a qualified lawyer applies for their first practising certificate. But, in proposals published for consultation, the regulator says it wants to check they are proficient before they are admitted to the roll.
The consultation paper says: ‘When the UK was a member of the EU, the European Union (Recognition of Professional Qualifications) Regulations 2015 applied and we were not permitted to seek evidence of language proficiency from a lawyer qualified in another EU member state until their qualification had been recognised. We took a consistent approach for all qualified lawyers and deferred the check until the point at which they applied for a first practising certificate. The Qualifications Act 2022, which came into force recently, repeals this regulation meaning we are now able to decide when to undertake English language checks.
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