I write to highlight a worrying decline in the status of solicitors in our society.

I am in the process of opening a cash ISA for my daughter and am applying to Skipton Building Society. Unsurprisingly, the society requires certified identification documents. I naturally thought: no problem, I will ask one of my colleagues, who knows my daughter, to provide the necessary certificate.

However, on checking the building society’s policy document, I saw that solicitors were excluded from the categories of person able to provide certificates. I decided to check with Skipton. After the obligatory 45-minute hold on the telephone, I was informed that, yes, only those classes of professional set out in its document were able to provide such certificates.

Fortunately, I know a carehome worker who also knows our daughter and who should be able to provide the necessary certificate. But it would be worth the Law Society exploring with Skipton Building Society what has caused its loss of confidence in our profession.

John Davies, senior partner, VSH Law, Northampton

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