*/
Thousands of knives are confiscated every year, the head of the court service revealed, defending court security checks that barristers have branded intrusive.
Susan Acland-Hood, the Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) told delegates at the Bar Council’s annual conference in London that 8,000 knives had been confiscated in 2017 and that 5,000 had already been removed this year, though she accepted that they had not been removed from barristers.
She spoke the day after confirming via social media site Twitter that a security guard working at court in Bromley had been suspended by his employer after asking a female barrister to ‘spread your legs’ during a security check, after she refused to empty her bag.
The incident happened on the day that HMCTS announced that the trial of an ID scheme to enable lawyers to get into courts without undergoing security checks would be extended to five more court centres.
Since August, courts in Brighton, Maidstone, Southwark, Tameside and Wood Green have piloted the use of the app developed at the cost of £50,000 by the Bar Council, which allows barristers to enter using a digital ID card on their phone.
The scheme has been extended to courts in Chester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, St Albans and Swansea.
Thousands of knives are confiscated every year, the head of the court service revealed, defending court security checks that barristers have branded intrusive.
Susan Acland-Hood, the Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) told delegates at the Bar Council’s annual conference in London that 8,000 knives had been confiscated in 2017 and that 5,000 had already been removed this year, though she accepted that they had not been removed from barristers.
She spoke the day after confirming via social media site Twitter that a security guard working at court in Bromley had been suspended by his employer after asking a female barrister to ‘spread your legs’ during a security check, after she refused to empty her bag.
The incident happened on the day that HMCTS announced that the trial of an ID scheme to enable lawyers to get into courts without undergoing security checks would be extended to five more court centres.
Since August, courts in Brighton, Maidstone, Southwark, Tameside and Wood Green have piloted the use of the app developed at the cost of £50,000 by the Bar Council, which allows barristers to enter using a digital ID card on their phone.
The scheme has been extended to courts in Chester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, St Albans and Swansea.
The Chair of the Bar reports back
Susie Griffin on the admin that keeps barristers from billable work
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how global events can influence the performance of pensions and ISAs, and why taking a long-term approach to investing is often the most effective strategy
Mário Barroso, Head of R&D and Method Development at AlphaBiolabs, discusses what family law professionals need to know about hallucinogens, from the main hallucinogenic drugs encountered in family proceedings, to their effects and the testing options available
Harmony Christian Ministries is the latest charity to benefit from a £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs via the company’s Giving Back initiative
By David Green
The golden age of advocacy? David Langwallner pays homage to the filmic if contentious barrister Sir Edward Carson and some of his contemporaries
Leah Arthur, a pupil, and her second seat supervisor, John Goss, share their perspectives on building a productive pupil-supervisor relationship
Henry Fingerhut outlines what the Bar Standards Board AI guidance means for early career barristers
The Ministry of Justice will match-fund up to 100 criminal pupillages, with grants available to criminal chambers across England and Wales. Similar to the COIC scheme, the grants will match-fund pupillages additional to those otherwise offered without government funding
Not yet, says Jacob Turner. Regulation, unlike the technology itself, is a domain the legal profession can still control
