A consultation proposing further changes to the education and training regulations has been published by the SRA.

The consultation proposes:

• recognising Welsh language skills as an outcome of the SRA’s education and training regulations as an alternative to English language skills for solicitors practising in Wales;
• removing requirements for qualified lawyers overseas to have a certificate issued by the SRA confirming their eligibility to sit the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme Assessment (QLTS); and
• removing the requirement for solicitors to undertake Management Course Stage 1, allowing solicitors to choose when to undertake management training and to decide the level of training that they need.

The SRA state that the proposals arise mainly as a result of  recent changes to education and training regulations in relation to student enrolment and CPD reflecting the need to ensure that other education and training requirements are consistent with those changes.

If adopted, they will remove unnecessary cost from the process of qualifying as a solicitor through the QLTS and from post-qualification training but do not make substantive changes to the route to qualification as a solicitor.

The consultation is available from 22 September to 17 November 2014 and can be found on the SRA web site at www.sra.org.uk/sra/consultations/red-tape-initiative-phase-3.page.