The Bar Standards Board has proposed ending the compulsory 12 hours a year continuing professional development (CPD) requirement.

A consultation sets out a scheme allowing barristers with more than three years’ experience to decide the type, scope, and volume of CPD they should do.

They will still have to maintain a continuous, up-to-date annual record of their CPD activities and demonstrate the relevance to their practice.

The BSB’s Director of Education and Training, Simon Thornton-Wood, said that “persistent or flagrant” breaches will be taken seriously, but the BSB wanted to move away from using a “sledgehammer to crack a nut” and inappropriately referring minor CPD offences to enforcement action.