The Law Society and Bar Council have named the nine members of the new independent selection panel charged with selecting new QCs. The panel will be chaired by Sir Duncan Nichol, currently a Commissioner for Judicial Appointments and chairman of the Parole Board for England and Wales.

Nichol will be joined on the panel by Roy Amlot QC, head of chambers at 6 King's Bench Walk, and by 11 New Square's Sonia Proudman QC. The two reserved positions for solicitors will be filled by Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, managing partner of London legal aid practice Scott-Moncrieff Harbour Sinclair, and Christopher Woolley, Chief Crown Prosecutor for South Wales since 2004.

Dame Butler-Sloss takes up the the position on the panel reserved for a retired judge. The lay members are Ruth Evans, chairman of the Standards Committee of the General Medical Council, Manchester University professor of health policy Joan Higgins and Karamjit Singh, who sits on the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Electoral Commission.

The new panel is tasked with appointing silks, after the Government last year announced it was to hand responsibility for awarding the QC rank to the Bar Council and the Law Society as part of a bid to reform the controversial award.

Under the new regime, applicants must submit a written application as well as between three to 12 'structured' references from judges, other lawyers and their clients. The panel will also have the power to revoke the QC rank if a silk is thought to be underachieving. The starting date for the 2005 selection round is to be announced shortly.

The Bar Council, which has strongly backed the move to reform rather than ditch the QC rank, will be hoping the appointment of the panel will speed up the launch of the scheme.

Early indications were that the scheme would face delays, with the Bar Council and Law Society initially struggling to agree on common assessment criteria.