DINING in London is to remain compulsory for trainee barristers on courses outside the capital, the Bar Council has ruled.

Students on the Bar Vocational Course to be run by institutions as far away as Newcastle upon Tyne will not be exempt from the tradition of dining at the Inns of Court in London.

They will be expected to pay for travel to the Inns to dine at least 12 times over two years, as well as becoming members of the Inns at a cost of Pounds 85.

The Bar Council has backed the tradition despite the Inns' agreement that "dining for dining's sake" is no longer acceptable as part of barristers' training. It has recommended that dining should be combined with "some kind of educational activity", such as debating, advocacy sessions, or meeting practitioners.

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Students will have to travel to the Inns from the Nottingham Law School, the University of the West of England in Bristol, Cardiff Law School, and the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, which, with three London institutions, have been validated to run the BVC from autumn.

The Bar Council, which has succeeded in reducing the number of mandatory dinners from 18 to 12, had hoped that proposals for delaying call to the bar for six months would allow students to complete their dining on completion of their course. But it had to go back to the drawing board when told its plans could lead to indirect discrimination.

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Nigel Bastin, Bar Council head of education, said there was still hope that the number of residential training weekends outside London attended by students would be increased to help ease the burden of travelling to the capital. Those attending such weekends are allowed to add three dinners to their tally.

"We would like the Inns to organise more of these kinds of activities in the North of England. However, students would still have to come down to London for some of their dinners."