Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
**IMPORTANT UPDATE FROM CILEX REGULATION – 24.09.2020**
Under the CPD Regulations, members requiring additional time to complete their CPD must request an extension by 31 August.
We understand that the initial consequences of lockdown, including the Job Retention (furlough) scheme, and the subsequent provisions made by the UK Government to restrict movement has meant that many members have found themselves unable to undertake CPD and that the availability of CPD activities has been reduced generally. CILEX and CILEX Regulation have received correspondence from several members asking for additional time to complete their CPD requirements for the 2019/2020 CPD year after the deadline imposed in the CPD Regulations.
To try and assist members who are required to complete CPD, CILEX Regulation has recently contacted the Legal Services Board to request a temporary alteration to the CPD Regulations to remove the deadline for extension requests under the provisions of Exemption Direction 149 that the Legal Services Board has put in place. The Legal Services Board have confirmed this temporary alteration can apply to the 2019/2020 CPD year.
If you feel that you have been adversely affected by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and need additional time to complete your CPD for 2019/2020, please email cpd@cilexregulation.org.uk including the reasons for your request.
Continuing Professional Development is the means by which individuals in our regulated community maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge and skills. It is essential that legal practitioners sustain and enhance their knowledge and skills so that their clients, the legal profession and the wider public can be assured of their ongoing competency.
CPD is necessary:
‘To maintain, improve and extend the skills
and qualities necessary for the proper performance of professional
and legal duties and compliance required by CILEX Regulation, to
ensure confidence in the professionalism and competence of CILEX
members.’
CPD Non-Compliance
Failure to submit your required CPD hours will result in a loss of any benefits attached to your membership status with effect from 1 January 2020. For Chartered Legal Executives and Legal Accounts Fellows this means you will lose your designatory letters, your right to act as a Commissioner for Oaths and your right to exercise any other rights attached to your membership, such as rights of audience.
Chartered Legal Executives and Associate Prosecutors will not receive a Practising Certificate for 2021 if they have not met their 2019/20 CPD requirements, even where they have paid their subscriptions and submitted the prior conduct form.