Legal Training And Discretionary Awards

EDM number 2026 in 1992-93, proposed by Paul Boateng on 18/05/1993.

That this House notes with concern the crisis in the funding of legal training arising from the virtual collapse of the discretionary award system; recognises that local authorities faced with cuts in their education budget are ceasing to make discretionary awards available for students seeking post-graduate vocational training as lawyers; notes in this regards that by 1992 the level of fee income received by the College of Law from local education authorities had fallen to 22 per cent. from 64 per cent. in 1989; believes that this will still further narrow the base from which the legal profession is drawn, undermining not only equal opportunities in the law, particularly for women and ethnic minorities but also the proper administration of justice; and therefore calls on the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Education to review the basis of the funding and structure of legal training with a view to placing it on a par with other professions, such as architecture, where courses leading to a professional qualification attract a mandatory grant.

This motion has been signed by a total of 87 MPs.