Editing King's Counsel (section)

=== <span class="anchor" id="Courtesy QC for Members of Parliament">Courtesy appointments for Members of Parliament</span>===

Until the 1990s there was a practice that sitting members of the UK Parliament (MPs) who were barristers were appointed QC, if they wished, on reaching a certain level of seniority of around fifteen years at the bar. Such appointments were sometimes known as "courtesy" or even "false" silk, and also as "nylons". In the 1990s, it was felt that the practice of granting silk to MPs in this way, without considering their abilities, devalued the rank and the practice was abolished.<ref name="sixthformlaw1"/>{{Better source needed|date=April 2021}}

However, for now the practice persists for law officers of the Crown.<ref name=Sixth>{{Cite web|url=http://sixthformlaw.info/01_modules/mod1/1_4_legal_personnel/1_4_2_barristers_solicitors/16_queen_counsel.htm|title=Barristers and solicitors - Queen's Counsel|publisher=6 Form Law|access-date=6 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623053523/http://sixthformlaw.info/01_modules/mod1/1_4_legal_personnel/1_4_2_barristers_solicitors/16_queen_counsel.htm|archive-date=23 June 2017|url-status=usurped}}</ref> Former [[Attorney General for England and Wales]] [[Jeremy Wright]] was not a QC when he was appointed, a subject which attracted some comment.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://venerablepuzzle.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/does-it-matter-that-camerons-new-attorney-general-isnt-a-qc/|title=Does It Matter That Cameron's New Attorney General Isn't a QC?|date=16 July 2014|access-date=25 January 2017}}</ref> Despite not having practised law for some time, Wright took silk shortly after his appointment, which was criticised by some as a breach of the protocol against "courtesy silk".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://counselofperfection.blogspot.com/2014/07/judge-man-by-his-actions-not-his.html|title=Judge a man by his actions not his website - Reflection on the Attorney General|author=Maximilian Hardy|date=17 July 2014|access-date=25 January 2017|quote=I do not believe it to be right that with the now well established mechanism in place for Queen's Counsel Appointments that the Law Officers should be awarded Silk as a courtesy title.}}</ref> Similarly when [[Harriet Harman]] was appointed as [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor General]] she was made a QC. [[Suella Braverman]] took silk on 25 February 2020; earlier that month she had, like Wright, been appointed Attorney General.