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CPD & Learning with Criminal Law Week

A CLW subscription includes one free CPD/CCC registration. Online CPD/CCC papers are available to be completed at any time during the CPD/CCC year. Email us to register or call us on 020 3197 4384 to find out more.

Since January 1, 2017, both the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) have adopted a new approach to learning and development that no longer requires the completion of a minimum number of hours.

Practitioners are now required to identify their own individual learning and development needs, create a personal development plan for the year, record and evaluate activities undertaken during the year, and declare annually that they have addressed their learning and development needs.

Keeping up to date with the latest legal developments in your practice area is an essential part of demonstrating that you are maintaining the highest standards of professional practice.   

  • Reading Criminal Law Week every week is an excellent way to keep yourself up to date with all the latest developments in criminal law.  
  • Every subscription to Criminal Law Week includes an optional free online Criminal Law Week CPD Course for barristers or Continuing Competence Course (CCC) for solicitors. These papers are a robust way to evidence to the BSB and the SRA that your legal knowledge is current.

BSB requirements

Detailed guidance on the new scheme appears on the Bar Standards Board website, but the following is a brief summary of the main requirements and explains why reading Criminal Law Week and completing a Criminal Law Week CPD course can help you carry out and evidence your learning.

Barristers who are established practitioners (different rules apply to new practitioners) are now required to:

REVIEW: prepare a written CPD Plan setting out learning objectives and the activities they propose to undertake during the year.
RECORD:  keep a written record of the CPD activities undertaken over the past three years, including reflection on CPD undertaken during that time, any variation in plans and an assessment of future learning objectives.
REFLECT: reflect on planned and completed CPD activities to assess whether objectives have been met.
REPORT:  declare to the Bar Standards Board annually that they have completed your CPD. This should be completed as part of the authorisation to practise process, when the practising certificate is being renewed. 

The CPD guidance sets out five general areas for training and development that barristers should consider when setting learning objectives:

  • legal knowledge and skills,
  • advocacy,
  • practice management,
  • working with clients and others,
  • ethics, professionalism and judgement.

It is not a requirement that all of these areas have learning objectives associated with them every year and there is no set number of learning objectives that barristers should aim to complete in a year.

The guidance states that it is anticipated that barristers will want to set some high level learning objectives that address core requirements, such as keeping up to date with legal developments, as well as setting some more specific learning objectives. The guidance also states that it may be appropriate to repeat some learning objectives every year and that it is good practice to complete a variety of different types of permissible CPD activities, including online courses.

A suggested CPD programme template covering the review, record and reflect stages above is available on the Bar Standards Board website, together with a sample of a compliant CPD record.   The table for the record stage includes the headings “Title of CPD activity”, “CPD provider”, “Learning objective(s) to which this activity relates”, “Can this activity be evidenced if you are spot-checked” and “Hours spent on this activity”.

After reading Criminal Law Week and completing a Criminal Law Week CPD Course, you will be able to enter into your CPD record that:

  • you have spent up to 46 hours reading Criminal Law Week issues (each issue is designed to take approximately an hour to read and there are approximately 46 issues a year),
  • you have spent up to 12 hours on an online CLW CPD course,
  • you have met your objective of keeping up to date with the latest legal developments in your practice area,
  • you can evidence this if spot-checked.

SRA requirements

Detailed guidance on continuing competence appears on the Solicitors Regulation Authority website, but the following is a brief summary of the main requirements and explains how completing Criminal Law Week CCC can help you evidence your learning.

Solicitors are now required to:

  • reflect on their practice and identify and record their learning and development needs.
  • record how they plan to address their identified learning and development needs and review the plan regularly.
  • address their learning and development needs.
  • record and evaluate learning and development activities undertaken.
  • make an annual declaration that “I have reflected on my practice and addressed any identified learning and development needs”.

The competences required of solicitors cover four broad areas:

  • Ethics, professionalism and judgement.
  • Technical legal practice
  • Working with other people
  • Managing themselves and their own work

A development plan template and a development record template, together with case studies are available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s website.

After reading Criminal Law Week and completing a Criminal Law Week Continuing Competence Course, you will be able to enter into your development record that:

  • you have spent up to 46 hours reading Criminal Law Week issues (each issue is designed to take approximately an hour to read and there are approximately 46 issues a year),
  • you have spent up to 12 hours on an online CLW CCC course,
  • you have met your objective of keeping up to date with the latest legal developments in your practice area. 
  • you will be able to evidence this on request by the SRA.

CPD course for barristers

Course content

Our courses consist of 12 online multiple-choice question papers spaced throughout the year, based on previous issues of Criminal Law Week and requiring no other knowledge.  Questions are set by the Criminal Law Week team. Each question paper is designed to take about an hour to complete and to ensure you have a thorough understanding of recent developments in the criminal law and a proper understanding of the impact of those developments.

Course details

Our course is run over a period of 12 months from the commencement of the CPD year on January 1 through to the end of December.

Registrants are notified by email when a new CPD paper becomes available. Registrants can then complete their questionnaires online using My CPD/CCC at any time before the end of the CPD year, with an online and email record provided for each paper completed successfully. If eight out of the 12 questions are answered correctly, one CPD paper has been completed successfully.

Registrants are informed by email at the end of the course of the total number of CPD papers they have completed successfully and can keep track of this during the year using My CPD/CCC.

My CPD/CCC

You can manage your CPD course with My CPD/CCC. Log in, using your email address and password, and you will be able to answer CPD papers and receive an immediate result, keep a record of the number of CPD papers you have completed successfully, and take a look at the schedule for the remaining papers.

Registration

One online CPD registration comes free with each CLW subscription. Email clw.cpd@thomsonreuters.com with your details to register. We are no longer selling independent CPD subscriptions. If you require multiple CPD registrations, please contact us on the same email address or call 020 3197 4384 to discuss your requirements further.

Complying with BSB requirements

A suggested CPD programme template is available on the Bar Standards Board website, together with a sample of a compliant CPD record.   The table for the record stage includes the headings “Title of CPD activity”, “CPD provider”, “Learning objective(s) to which this activity relates”, “Can this activity be evidenced if you are spot-checked” and “Hours spent on this activity”. To read more about the BSB requirements, see the BSB requirements section above.

After completing a Criminal Law Week CPD Course, you will be able to enter into your CPD record that:

  • you have spent up to 46 hours reading Criminal Law Week issues (each issue is designed to take approximately an hour to read and there are approximately 46 issues a year),
  • you have spent up to 12 hours on an online CLW CPD course,
  • you have met your objective of keeping up to date with the latest legal developments in your practice area,
  • you can evidence this if spot-checked.

Continuing Competence Course (CCC) for solicitors

Course content

Our courses consist of 12 online multiple-choice question papers spaced throughout the year, based on previous issues of Criminal Law Week and requiring no other knowledge.  Questions are set by the Criminal Law Week team. Each question paper is designed to take about an hour to complete and to ensure you have a thorough understanding of recent developments in the criminal law and a proper understanding of the impact of those developments.

Course details

Our course is run over a period of 12 months from the commencement of the CCC year on November 1 through to the end of October.

Registrants are notified by email when a new CCC paper becomes available. Registrants can then complete their questionnaires online using My CPD/CCC at any time before the end of the CCC year, with an online and email record provided for each paper completed successfully. If eight out of the 12 questions are answered correctly, one CCC paper has been completed successfully.

Registrants are informed by email at the end of the course of the total number of CCC papers they have completed successfully and can keep track of this during the year using My CPD/CCC.

My CPD/CCC

You can manage your CCC course with My CPD/CCC. Log in, using your email address and password, and you will be able to answer CCC papers and receive an immediate result, keep a record of the number of CCC papers you have completed successfully, and take a look at the schedule for the remaining papers.

Registration

One online CCC registration comes free with each CLW subscription. Email clw.cpd@thomsonreuters.com with your details to register. We are no longer selling independent CCC subscriptions. If you require multiple CCC registrations, please contact us on the same email address or call 020 3197 4384 to discuss your requirements further.

Complying with SRA requirements

A development plan template and a development record template, together with case studies are available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s website.   To read more about the SRA requirements, see the SRA requirements section above.

After completing a Criminal Law Week Continuing Competence Course, you will be able to enter into your development record that:

  • you have spent up to 46 hours reading Criminal Law Week issues (each issue is designed to take approximately an hour to read and there are approximately 46 issues a year),
  • you have spent up to 12 hours on an online CLW CCC course,
  • you have met your objective of keeping up to date with the latest legal developments in your practice area, 
  • you will be able to evidence this on request by the SRA.

Reading Criminal Law Week

Criminal Law Week issues

Each Criminal Law Week issue contains:

  • digests of all reported cases and legislation touching on crime since the previous week,
  • plus extra material such as digests of Supreme Court cases, other unreported cases of interest, sentencing and attorney-general’s guidelines, criminal practice directions, and expert commentary from the Criminal Law Week Commentary Board.

Reading Criminal Law Week every week is therefore an excellent way to keep up to date with all the latest legal developments in your practice area, which is an essential part of demonstrating to your professional body that you are maintaining the highest standards of practice.

Complying with BSB and SRA requirements

A suggested CPD programme template is available on the Bar Standards Board website, together with a sample of a compliant CPD record.   The table for the record stage includes the headings “Title of CPD activity”, “CPD provider”, “Learning objective(s) to which this activity relates”, “Can this activity be evidenced if you are spot-checked” and “Hours spent on this activity”.

A development plan template and a development record template, together with case studies are available on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s website. 

To read more about the BSB and SRA requirements, see the BSB and SRA requirements sections above.

After reading Criminal Law Week, if you have not also completed a CPD course or a Continuing Competence Course with us, you will be able to enter into your CPD record that:

  • you have spent up to 46 hours reading Criminal Law Week issues (each issue is designed to take approximately an hour to read and there are approximately 46 issues a year),
  • you have met your objective of keeping up to date with the latest legal developments in your practice area.

If you would like us to evidence that you have a CLW subscription, please email us at clw.editiorial@thomsonreuters.com or call us on 020 3197 4384 and we will be able to provide you with an emailed letter confirming this that you can present to your regulatory body.

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