DORSET Business was described as "the best Chamber of Commerce in Britain" by its president Malcolm Scott Walby at the recent president's lunch attended by a record 368 guests at the Royal Bath Hotel in Bournemouth.

In the presence of the lord lieutenant of Dorset, the mayor and mayoress of Poole, and the leader of Bournemouth Borough Council, guests heard the chamber's president expand on that claim.

He positioned Dorset Business - the only Chamber of Commerce in the south west - as a driving force in business support in the south.

With membership having topped 900 in February, the chamber (which was a finalist in the Chamber of the Year Awards 2007) is expanding its training activities, provides a vital international documentation service for exporters, holds upwards of eighty networking events each year and lobbies on behalf of its members.

The next generation of business people was represented at the lunch by Neill Sutton, who is employed by Hamworthy Combustion as a mechanical manufacturing engineering apprentice. Presenting him with the Hawkes Award for Apprentice of the Year Mr Scott Walby said: "Neill always goes the extra mile and is a great support for other apprentices."

Mr Scott Walby is senior partner in Scott Walby LLP Solicitors in Bournemouth. He is a commercial specialist with a particular interest in employment law and so took the opportunity to contemplate law in Dorset.

Leading barrister John Aspinall QC also gave an illuminating speech about his career and various cases that he had been involved in locally - recalling some of Dorset's darker dealings. From 1985 to 1998 he sat as an assistant recorder, then recorder in civil and criminal law.

The development of his criminal practice culminated in a junior practice almost exclusively concerned with the conduct of criminal cases involving murder, fraud, drugs and arms trafficking.

Recent cases he has been involved in have included Dakers v Ors (money laundering and disclosure); Operation Trident (murder and conspiracy to murder) and the defence of a 17 year old accused of murder in a complex murder case investigated by the Dorset Police. It involved a variety of evidence from DNA to cell confessions.

Vice-president of Dorset Business David Foster concluded proceedings. The event was also an opportunity for local business people to network.