The Proposed Solicitors' Qualifying Examination

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 7 February 2018.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 2:25, 7 February 2018

(Translated)

Certainly. A meeting has already been scheduled and has taken place with the officials of the SRA where these specific issues were discussed. I’m meeting the SRA again in a few weeks’ time and I intend to continue that discussion with them. There are two points arising here. The first is the role of devolved law in the new qualification, and we have to encourage law schools in Wales to come together to provide that qualification through their courses. This isn’t just of benefit to people working in Wales; it’s important for lawyers who practice outside of Wales who have clients here or who have clients who operate in Wales. So, there is a wide-ranging impact for the question, as you would expect.

In terms of the question of the language—this question was raised also in meetings with officials. It’s clearly important for the Government's goal of reaching 1 million speakers that the use of the Welsh language within the profession should be normalised and an everyday occurrence. So, it’s very important to ensure that this does happen. I have had communication this morning from the Welsh Language Commissioner on this subject, as it happens, and I looked at some of the announcements made by the SRA in this context, and I have to say that I was disappointed to see that there wasn’t enough ambition in what was being proposed at the time. Several assessments within the new qualification are going to happen on a multiple-choice basis, so that should be quite simple to provide jointly through English or Welsh.