bench-selection-advisory-committee

Bench Selection Advisory Committee

Membership:
Chairman	Master Tim Dutton
Masters of the Bench	Masters: David Etherington, Guy Mansfield, Richard Anelay, Isobel Plumstead, Shami Chakrabarti, Richard Miller, Sarah Worthington Co-opted: Masters: Ian Mayes, Paul Jenkins, Nicholas Hilliard Ex Officio: Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer Elect
Members of Hall	Chairman of the Hall Committee
Secretary to the Committee	Head of Bench Administration
Staff who attend	Under Treasurer

The BSAC is responsible for the administration of the process of election of new Benchers and for advising Parliament on policy in relation to that process.

Currently 18 new Benchers are elected each year - six at each of three Election Parliaments.

The process is as follows:
(1) A prospective candidate is identified and the proposer is asked to complete an official Proposer Form which includes a short CV;
(2) The prospective candidate is sent a Candidate Form to complete which outlines their work for the profession and for the Inn, and a statement in which they outline the work they intend to contribute to the Inn if elected as a Bencher.
(3) Once all the appropriate forms are completed, the candidate is placed into a Pool from which the BSAC selects ten candidates to be put to Parliament;
(4) Parliament votes on the ten candidates and six are successful at each Election Parliament.

The BSAC reports annually to Parliament in December.