§ Mr. VazTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make a statement on his plans to allow solicitors rights of audience in the higher courts.
Mr. John M. TaylorThe Lord Chancellor's advisory committee on legal education and conduct has recently given the Law Society its initial advice on its application for extended rights of audience for solicitors. It is now for the Law Society to decide how to take the application forward in the light of that advice. When the application is sent formally to the Lord Chancellor, he will seek the advice of the advisory committee and of the Director General of Fair Trading. The decision whether to approve the application is taken in the light of that advice by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, the President of the Family Division and the Vice-Chancellor.