Selection of QCs should be opened to public scrutiny, inquiry demands

The archaic "secret soundings" system for selecting Queen's Counsel should be opened to public scrutiny, an independent inquiry has said.

Under recommendations by Sir Colin Campbell, a senior academic, ministers should ensure QCs are appointed in the same way as other public figures such as senior civil servants.

Sir Colin's report, to be published this year, calls for an independent assessor to sit in on the first part of the "sifting" stage, where officials weed out weak applicants. Sir Colin, the first Commissioner for Judicial Appointments, "recommends that a panel should include a member who is independent of the department concerned".

He sees "no justification for less stringent procedural safeguards being applied" to the appointment of QCs "than is common for public appointments". His report also criticises the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, for allowing one official to face the "impossible task" of sifting 4,700 comments on more than 450 competing applicants during the 2001 Silk round.

The report identified "work pressures", "conflicting priorities" and a "high level of staff sickness" in the judicial group of the Lord Chancellor's Department, which administers the appointments process.