It began with this blog post on Sunday by Fountain Court’s Ian West, where he called on fellow barristers to refuse to sign up to the Quality Assurance Scheme For Advocates (QASA) – which many view as a backdoor way of handing the likes of Eddie Stobart Group and G4S the keys to the criminal justice system. Among the many (mostly discursive and non-committal) comments, one – posted yesterday afternoon – stood out: “I support this approach. I will not sign up to QASA. Andrew Vout, 1 High Pavement, Nottingham”. Over the course of the evening, others followed on Twitter…
I won’t either“@thecriminalbar: Post on Blog today. “I support this approach. I will not sign up to QASA. Andrew Vout 1 High Pavement”
— Dan Bunting (@danbunting) March 12, 2013
.@danbunting: I won’t either. “Post on Blog today. “I support this approach. I will not sign up to QASA. Andrew Vout 1 High Pavement” Nor I.
— James Vine (@JamesPSVine) March 12, 2013
I will not sign up to QASA. Sarah Vine, 2 Pump Court — Sarah Vine (@Queenofjustice) March 12, 2013
I will not sign up to QASA. @thecriminalbar
— Adam Davis QC (@briefforhire) March 12, 2013
Stop the destruction of the criminal Bar. #NotoQASA I will not sign up. Alistair Mitchell, 49 Chambers, Midland Circuit.
— carnybull (@carnybull) March 13, 2013
Meanwhile, this morning back in the comments section to West’s blog…
We’ll be keeping an eye out for more “I will not sign up to QASA” pledges as they happen. In the meantime, the Twitter hashtag to keep an eye on is #NoToQASA.