This month we launched a public consultation on new rules to promote equality, diversity and inclusion at the Bar. Despite improvements in diversity in recent years, there remain significant challenges for the Bar in promoting access to the profession, in retaining qualified practitioners and in addressing bullying, discrimination and harassment. So we are proposing a further step change in the profession’s approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.

The consultation document seeks views on a number of proposals. In particular, a change to Core Duty 8 would place a positive obligation on barristers to “act in a way that advances equality, diversity, and inclusion” when providing legal services, we also propose to take a more outcomes focused approach to these equality rules, but to retain prescriptive requirements where necessary for transparency and accountability. These proposals have been informed by engagement activities with the profession, the Inns, our Race Equality, Disability, and Religion and Belief Task Forces, as well as through research and data on the current inequalities within the profession and the extent to which the current rules have had an impact on tackling inequalities.

In addition to the wider public consultation on these proposed changes, we plan to engage separately with those stakeholders who are likely to be impacted by these proposals through a series of targeted engagement sessions, including, for example the Inns of Court and Circuits across England and Wales, the specialist Bar Associations, and equalities groups who represent those who face barriers at the Bar. The public consultation will be open until 5PM on Friday 29 November and you can access the full consultation document on our website and you can respond to the consultation questions via this form.

In July our Director General Mark Neale write a blogpost about the role of the regulator in relation to equality and diversity. Read more on our website.

We are seeking to appoint two lay Board members and one barrister Board member.

The new Board members with others on the Board will lead the organisation through a time of far-reaching change in the legal services market and its regulation. Over the next ten years, barristers in England and Wales will continue to face major challenges including levels of public funding, changing consumer demands and expectations, and technological advances. We must ensure that ourregulation is risk-based, proportionate and agile in a changing legal services and regulatory landscape.  We must also seek to promote equality and diversity at the Bar.

To meet these challenges we are reforming to become more proactive and consumer-focused in our approach to regulation and more efficient in our delivery of our regulatory functions.

The Board aims to have barrister members with a wide variety of practice backgrounds. We would particularly welcome applicants from the Circuits, from the Employed Bar and from the Young Bar.

For lay members, the Board is especially keen to appoint someone with experience of consumer advocacy, policy and/or engagement and someone with strong commercial expertise (ideally that would include change management in a commercial context as well as risk and finance at a strategic level). 

We want the Bar to be as fully diverse as the society it serves, and we strive for diverse representation to be reflected across all areas of our organisation, including on our Board. We welcome applications from anyone regardless of age, experience, sexuality, religion, beliefs, disability or neurodiversity, ethnicity, race, gender, gender identity, marital status and socioeconomic background.

The appointments are remunerated, at a rate of £10,000 annually, for a time commitment of approximately two days per month.

The closing date for applications is midnight on 29 September 2024.

For further information, candidates should visit the Inclusive Boards website where they can download the candidate pack and application forms (supporting details and template application form).

In July we published our  Annual Report for the 2023-24 business year, providing a summary of our activities during the period.

2023-2024 was the penultimate year of the BSB’s current strategy. Over this year we continued to focus on improving our performance and achieving operational excellence. Productivity markedly improved over the year, particularly in concluding investigations. Other highlights from the year include:

• To support us in identifying improvements and ensuring that the enforcement system operates effectively and efficiently in the public interest, wecommissioned the leading legal firm Fieldfisher LLP to conduct an independent end-to-end review of our enforcement policies and processes. The review was completed and published earlier in the year and its recommendations will all be implemented.
• Our work to encourage best practice in the way chambers promote standards, equality and access continued over the last year. As part of this work we held consultative roundtables with barristers and chambers professionals across all circuits in England and Wales to gather their views on our proposals.
• To support high standards at the Bar, we published new guidance on barristers’ conduct in non-professional life and on social media.
• As a contribution to tackling bullying and harassment at the Bar and to promoting the reporting of such behaviour we initiated a series of outreach presentations to explain to professional audiences how we will handle such reports.
• New Continuing Professional Development (CPD) guidance and templates were published to help practising barristers approach CPD in a structured and reflective manner and to promote good practice.
• We published our  Data and Intelligence Strategy 2024–2027 , setting out a vision and objectives for our data and intelligence, an implementation roadmap, and the outcomes we seek to achieve.

In September 2021, in response to concerns raised about standards of practice in the Coroners’ Courts, the Bar Standards Board (BSB), the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and CILEx Regulation Ltd (CRL), with assistance from the Deputy Chief Coroner and a working group, published a set of Competences for practitioners (barristers, solicitors and CILEx practitioners) which outlined the skills, attributes and knowledge that practitioners need to be effective in the Coroners’ Courts. A toolkit was also developed, containing resources to raise awareness about how to report concerns about standards in the Coroners’ Courts.  The toolkit also helps practitioners to understand the challenges of practising in inquests and to identify the learning and development they need to address to meet those challenges.

Following publication of these resources, an evaluation was carried out to determine the extent to which the competences and toolkit have met the overarching objectives of the project. Evaluation work started in September 2023 looking at awareness of these resources at the Bar and among key stakeholders and whether they have contributed to improving standards in the Coroners’ Courts.

The evaluation found awareness of the resources among barristers and coroners is high, with over 75% of barristers practising in the Coroners’ Courts and over 95% of coroners stating that they were aware of the resources. The evaluation also suggests that the majority of both barristers and coroners who are aware of the resources are using them, and that most view them as helpful and would recommend them to colleagues.

Overall, the evaluation findings around the impact of the resources are more mixed than the generally positive findings around the awareness, use and value of the resources. While the resources are seen by some as having had a positive impact, the majority appear to feel that more needs to be done to address some of the issues which the competences and toolkit seek to address – such as unnecessarily adversarial behaviour.

Following this evaluation, the BSB will continue to work with the SRA and CRL to consider the findings, look into suggested changes to the resources and explore whether parts of the toolkit need to be expanded or amended. Additionally, we will work with the Deputy Chief Coroner and other key stakeholders, to identify and agree on ways to continue raising awareness of the resources among practitioners and coroners.

You can read the full evaluation report and a research summary.

This annual report covers the period from July 2023 to June 2024 and contains statistics on enrolment, results and trends in vocational training to become a barrister, and student progression onto pupillage in England and Wales. The report shows the differences in the costs of different Bar courses and in the pass rates for students at different institutions. It also shows the relationship between the class of students’ first degree and their likelihood to obtain pupillage. It provides prospective barristers with information about the different Bar training providers at which they may be considering studying. 

Further statistics on overall trends in Bar training costs, enrolment, results, and progression are published annually in a separate report available on our website. An Annual Report on Bar Training, providing narrative reflection on how we seek to ensure that standards are set, met, and assured during both the vocational and pupillage components of Bar training is published at the end of each calendar year.

As of June 2024, vocational training for the Bar courses has been authorised to run at 10 different Bar training providers, covering 21 different sites in total. The data from the report shows that course fees continue to be lower at most training providers than they were prior to the implementation of the new course that followed on from the previous Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC).

We are pleased to announce that we have joined the UK Regulators Network (UKRN). Established in 2014, the UKRN works to promote effective co-operation, collaboration and learning between regulators on important issues. The UKRN encourages greater efficiency and improved outcomes for consumers, businesses, and the economy, exploring cross-cutting issues and building better ways of working.

If we investigate a report alleging a breach of the rules and duties which govern the conduct of barristers the more serious alleged breaches are referred to the independent Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service (BTAS). You can read more about our disciplinary tribunals process on our website. The most serious cases which result in the disbarment of suspension of a barrister from practice are the subject of Press Releases which you can find on our website. You can also find out whether an individual barrister has been the subject of a disciplinary finding by searching for them on the Barristers Register.

In May our Director General wrote the first in a series of blogs about regulatory risk reform. Read his blog post on our website. Last month he also wrote a blog post reflecting on the Legal Services Act 2007. You can also read that on our website.

In June 2023, the BSB issued a consultation document seeking views on proposed changes which would widen the powers of the BSB and of Disciplinary Tribunals to protect the public by restricting or suspending a barrister’s ability to practise on an interim basis. In December 2023, we published a summary of responses to the consultation, and the BSB’s response.

Following approval from the Legal Services Board we have now implemented the following rule changes:

1.) Giving the Disciplinary Tribunal the power to impose interim restrictions on a barrister’s practising certificate, or the withdrawal of practising rights on an interim basis, where a finding of misconduct has been made but the decision on sanction has been deferred to a later date, in order to protect the public and the public interest; and

2.) Extending the powers of the BSB to refer a person to an interim suspension panel, by adding a new ground for referral, where it is “necessary to protect the public or is otherwise in the public interest”.

These important changes to our regulatory arrangements will help us to protect the public and maintain public confidence.

In April we became the first legal regulator in England and Wales to introduce the cloud based ReciteMe software to our website to enhance accessibility and inclusivity.

As per our latest Diversity at the Bar Report, including those that have not provided information on disability, 5.1 per cent of the Bar; 11.0 per cent of pupils (63); 5.2 per cent of non-KC barristers (818); and 2.5 per cent of KCs (51) had declared a disability as of December 2023; a total of 932 – 0.05% of the practising Bar as of 1 December 2023. The overall year on year percentage point increase for those declaring a disability is 0.7pp (4.4% to 5.1%). The increase may be linked to an increase in response rates.

One in five people in the UK are reported to have a disability, including conditions like visual impairments and dyslexia. ReciteMe will help these people to access our website in the way that suits them best, for example through the option to have content read out aloud in a natural voice. The software can also translate content into over 100 languages, increasing the reach of the website to the one in ten people in the UK who do not speak English as a first language. In addition, ReciteMe offers reading aid tools designed to help people with a learning disability as well as styling and customisation technology to change the way the website looks, which can support neurodivergent people, such as those with dyslexia. You can view the accessibility options when you accept the recommended cookies.

Following on from the publication of its Anti-Racist Statement in 2020, we have now launched our Anti-Racist Strategy covering the period 2024-2027. This new Strategy sets our internal commitment to anti-racism in how we operate with our people, outlining how we intend to lead by example by setting and meeting high standards in our own approach.

In developing the Strategy, we surveyed our workforce and held focus groups. Based on the evidence obtained through this work, an internal Anti-Racist Working Group (ARWG) was formed co- chaired by Ewen Macleod (Director of Strategy and Policy) and Rupika Madhura (Director of Regulatory Standards – interim) along with colleagues across the organisation to recommend a strategy to the Senior Leadership Team and the BSB Board.

We have developed a Year 1 Action Plan to sit alongside this Strategy and will monitor and evaluate progress through the formation of a new Anti-Racist Implementation Group. Progress will be communicated across the organisation throughout the year and at the conclusion of subsequent annual action plans.

Last month we commissioned M·E·L Research, a specialist market, social and behavioural research and insights consultancy, to conduct research aimed at understanding the experiences of digitally excluded clients or prospective clients within the legal sector, particularly those currently underserved by the digital revolution. This initiative is part of a collaborative effort that includes three other regulatory bodies, namely CILEx Regulation Ltd (CRL), the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC), and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

We hope that this research will support our work to improve access to justice for all by helping us to better understand the experiences of the digitally excluded and how best regulators and legal service providers can assist them to overcome the barriers they face. We intend to share the insights gained from this research with the broader community of legal and accountancy service providers, regulatory bodies, and policymakers.

In May we published two reports on pupillage recruitment at the Bar. The objective of this research was to strengthen our evidence base around pupillage recruitment to inform the development of our policies, including our forthcoming consultation on the Equality Rules.

Our annual statistical reports on Bar training have for a number of years highlighted differential rates of obtaining pupillage, particularly by ethnicity. In order to expand our evidence on recruitment to pupillage, we undertook research into two elements –

a quantitative analysis focused on recruitment outcomes, and a qualitative piece of research looking at the experiences of organisations who have adopted particular approaches to recruitment. The quantitative analysis was undertaken internally by us using existing data on pupillage providers and pupils, while the qualitative research was undertaken by Community Research for us based on interviews with pupillage providers and other stakeholders. We have also produced a summary of the findings of both reports.

As has been noted in our annual Diversity at the Bar reports, and again shown by the analysis in the quantitative report, the profile of pupils has changed over time. For example, there have been increases in the proportions of female pupils, pupils from minoritised ethnic backgrounds (particularly from Asian/Asian British backgrounds) and an increase in the proportion of pupils who attended state schools. The analysis also reveals that the profile of pupils often differs markedly dependent on the type of organisation, in particular the practice area of the pupillage provider.

The qualitative research highlighted some of the challenges associated with encouraging greater diversity. Chambers are typically recruiting small numbers of people each year and the people responsible for recruitment tend to have limited time to dedicate to the process. The impact of any changes made to their recruitment processes were also hard to measure as most providers only recruited a small number of pupils each year, so changes were inevitably slow to make an impact. There was considerable variety in terms of the approaches adopted to recruitment across providers - while there were some evident similarities (in particular around the selection criteria employed), no two processes described by pupillage providers were exactly the same. It was evident that much effort is expended by pupillage providers to recruit for more diverse outcomes – both in collaboration with other organisations and individually.

Despite the commitment of many chambers to promote diverse recruitment, the research identifies continuing challenges:

• Some pupillage providers noted that while applicants from diverse backgrounds were making it through the initial application and potentially the first interview, for the final interview it became more difficult to ignore the ‘polish’ of more advantaged candidates.
• Some providers mentioned that it can be difficult attracting diverse applicants to less diverse areas of law (and less diverse chambers). However, several pupillage providers also recognised that there could be an issue with affinity bias in their recruitment process.
• This may help to explain the finding of the quantitative research that overall, organisations using contextual or blind recruitment did not have higher proportions of successful women candidates or successful candidates from minoritised ethnic backgrounds than organisations that did not use these approaches.
• Many chambers attach weight as part of the recruitment process to the completion of a mini-pupillage, but there is no consistent and fair process for allocating such mini-pupillages, with some chambers offering them on a first come first served basis.
• Where chambers required a mini-pupillage at their own organisation as a condition of consideration for pupillage itself, success rates were lower for women, candidates from minoritised background and from state schools and higher for white candidates from fee-paying schools.

We will use the evidence outlined in these two reports to inform the next phases of its work on equality and diversity, including the revision of the Equality Rules. In publishing these reports, the BSB also seeks to encourage the Bar to continue to reflect on implementing more inclusive approaches to recruitment.

If we investigate a report alleging a breach of the rules and duties which govern the conduct of barristers the more serious alleged breaches are referred to the independent Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service (BTAS). You can read more about our disciplinary tribunals process on our website. The most serious cases which result in the disbarment of suspension of a barrister from practice are the subject of Press Releases which you can find on our website. You can also find out whether an individual barrister has been the subject of a disciplinary finding by searching for them on the Barristers Register.

In January our Director General wrote a blog about the role of regulators. Read his blog post on our website.

At the meeting of the Bar Standards Board on 25 January our Director General, Mark Neale, made the following statement in relation to the current Post Office Inquiry:

Given the recent heightened public interest in the wrongful prosecutions brought by the Post Office against sub-postmasters and mistresses and the ongoing Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry, I feel it important to provide the Board at this public session with a general update on the BSB’s work in relation to barristers involved in the Post Office cases and related litigation who may have failed to fulfil their duties and or meet the standards expected of them. 

It would be inappropriate to provide details about individual cases.  Some matters have already been referred to investigation and as a Core Participant we are closely monitoring the progress of the Inquiry. However, it is unlikely that we will move forward with regulatory action until all relevant evidence has been heard by the Inquiry. 

We do not consider the evidence presented at the Inquiry so far, or the evidence we have received direct, indicates that any members of the Bar present an ongoing risk to the public that requires the BSB to act immediately. However, should such evidence emerge then we would consider taking more immediate regulatory action.

As usual, decisions in individual cases will of course remain with the Executive and not the Board and we shall be following our usual approach of dealing with all cases in confidence unless they ultimately result in a Disciplinary Tribunal hearing. 

We are committed to ensuring that reporting of misconduct by barristers, including bullying and harassment within the Bar, is taken seriously. To inform the Bar about our approach to handling the concerns reported to us, we are organising a series of outreach presentations to explain how to report such incidences to us and what steps we will take after receiving a report including taking disciplinary action. We plan to hold presentations in each circuit across England and Wales over the next year. Sessions will feature a presentation delivered by our staff who deal with reports of concerns about barristers and an opportunity to ask questions. We will also present our newly updated External guidance on dealing with reports of harassment.

The first event was held on 13 March. We are in the process of confirming the exact dates for the remaining events, but hope to visit Liverpool (Northern Circuit), York (North Eastern Circuit), Nottingham (Midlands Circuit), Southampton (South Eastern Circuit), Cardiff (Wales and Chester Circuit) and Exeter (Western Circuit). Full details will be provided on our website and on social media.

The leading law firm Fieldfisher LLP was appointed in 2023 to carry out an end-to-end review of our enforcement system, encompassing all of our systems, processes and policies. After agreement in principle by the Board, the full report has been published.

Fieldfisher reviewed how well our enforcement system operates from first receipt of concerns about barristers’ conduct through to final decisions being made on sanctions to be imposed by staff, an Independent Decision-making Panel or by the Disciplinary Tribunal.

Fieldfisher found that “the enforcement procedure adopted by us is in line with similar models used in professional regulation elsewhere” and that “fundamentally the approach was appropriate” but the report makes a wide range of recommendations for improvement. Those recommendations span eight different areas, which include:

• the creation of a new executive role to oversee continuous improvement of the enforcement process;
• an improved approach to knowledge management;
• better communication with consumers to ensure that the public understands what the Bar Standards Board can help with and what it cannot;
• the re-engineering of some processes and of the Case Management System which supports our people in delivering those processes;
• a number of further changes intended to bring about improvements in the performance and effectiveness of both the BSB and the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service (BTAS) which provides disciplinary tribunals.

The report also recommends that sections of the BSB Handbook should be adapted, and that the language used should be simplified. The Board has agreed in principle to most of the recommendations and referred others to the Independent Decision-Making Body for their consideration. The recommendations will now be taken forward by the executive.

The full report is available on our website.

This month we published our Data and Intelligence Strategy 2024–2027. We recognise the value of effective data and intelligence in exercising its regulatory functions and believes that data and intelligence are crucial to enabling the regulator to work effectively and to be agile, evidence-led and risk-based. We use data and intelligence to drive effective policy, and regularly publishes key data both on developments within the legal sector, and on its own performance and decision-making.

As we enter the final year of our 2022-25 BSB Strategic Plan, much of its work, either directly or indirectly, involves data and intelligence capabilities. In transitioning to a new Strategic Plan from 2025, the Data and Intelligence Strategy will help us set the data and intelligence foundations for its commitments and help it to deliver its strategic goals from 2025 onwards. This document therefore lays out our strategy over the next three years to achieve these improvements. It sets out a vision and objectives for data and intelligence at the BSB, an implementation roadmap, and the outcomes we seek to achieve. You can read the full strategy on our website.

We have published a summary of the latest available diversity data for the Bar.

The report covers 2023, a year which has seen the continuation of several longer term trends. These include an increase in the proportion of practising barristers who are women; who are from a minority ethnic background; who have primary care of a child; and who are aged 55 or over. The year also saw a relatively large increase in individuals currently undertaking pupillage. The number in the practising or non-practising stage of pupillage as of December 2023 was 572, which is 84 higher than that seen in December 2022, and the highest number seen for any Diversity at the Bar report (the report started in 2015).

The proportion of women KCs has increased from 19.2 per cent in 2022 to 20.3 per cent in 2023. There is still a large disparity between the proportion of the Bar who are women and the proportion of women KCs (40.6% vs 20.3%) but the difference between the two has narrowed slightly in 2023. The percentage of barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds has increased by 0.6 percentage points since December 2022 to 16.9 per cent. That compares to an estimate of 16.7 per cent of the working age population in England and Wales as of April-June 2023. As of December 2023, there was a 3.2 percentage point increase in the proportion of pupils with a declared disability compared to December 2022 (from 12.5% to 15.7%).

This report sets out an evidence base from which relevant and targeted policy is being developed to support the BSB in meeting its statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010, the Legal Services Act 2007 and in achieving its equality and diversity objectives under the Equality and Diversity Strategy 2022-2025. You can read the full report on our website.

Last month we published our annual report, Diversity of the BSB Workforce and Board Members 2023. It follows the publication of the Diversity at the Bar Report 2022, which showed that the Bar continues to become more diverse and more representative of the society that it serves but women and barristers from minoritised ethnic backgrounds remain underrepresented at the most senior levels of the Bar.

In taking forward its regulatory objectives, including to promote a diverse Bar, the BSB aims to lead by example. The Diversity of BSB Workforce and Board Members report demonstrates our commitment to meeting our equality duties in every aspect of its work, in line with the Equality and Diversity Strategy 2022-2025.

The data were captured on 1 December 2023, with people data deriving from an anonymous and voluntary survey, and data relating to Board members being collected and analysed annually. This is the same capture date for the data used for the previous year’s report.

The data collected from the workforce and Board members cover all the characteristics that are protected by the Equality Act 2010 (except for pregnancy and maternity, and marriage and civil partnership) in addition to information about caring responsibilities and social mobility. These are the same data that the BSB collects about barristers.

For the eleven Board members of the BSB the key findings of the report are:

• Four members were female, and seven members were male.
• Two members were aged “35-54”, seven members were in the “55-64” range, and the remaining Board members were aged 65+.
• Eight members were from a White background. The remaining members were from another ethnic group.

For BSB people, meaning employees as opposed to Board members, of which there were 104 at the time the data were captured, the key findings of the report are:

• 59 per cent of our workforce was White, compared to 83.2 per cent of the UK working age population. The proportion of our workforce who are from a minority ethnic background is significantly higher than the proportion of people in the working age population of England and Wales who are from a minority ethnic background.
• 41 per cent of our workforce was from a minority ethnic background. This is two percentage points higher than that seen in December 2022 and compares to an estimate of 16.7 per cent of the working age population in England and Wales as of April-June 2023.
• The proportion of our workforce who are female has remained unchanged, at 74 per cent: This compares to an estimate of 50.2 per cent of the UK working age (16-64) population.

• Three per cent of our workforce declared a disability. This is a decrease of one percentage point from 2022.
• 13 per cent of our workforce selected “Bisexual/ Gay or Lesbian/ Another sexuality”, which is unchanged year on year. This compares to an estimate of four per cent of the UK population aged 16 and over identifying as one of Bisexual, Gay or Lesbian or another sexual orientation as of 2022.

The report also contains comparative statistics for senior and junior staff at the BSB and it includes findings that compared to more junior staff those in senior grades at the BSB (in job levels 1-4) were more likely to be older, to be White (56 per cent compared to 35 per cent), to be male (30 per cent compared to 19 per cent), to have been independently educated and not to be in the first generation in their family to have attended university.

You can read the full Diversity of the BSB Workforce and Board Members 2023 report on our website.

As we told you in January, we have launched a three-month public consultation to seek views on our proposed approach to revising the definition of academic legal training and to dealing with consequential waivers and exemptions.

Training for the Bar has three components: academic, vocational and work based. We have been reviewing the current rules governing the requirements for successful completion of the academic component of training for practice at the Bar and we think that they no longer effectively promote our objectives of maintaining high standards, flexibility, accessibility, and affordability.

We therefore propose to simplify the current definition of academic legal training so that it is easier to understand and apply. The revised definition will take into account various requirements that are currently dispersed across the BSB Handbook, the Bar Qualification Manual and the Curriculum and Assessment Strategy into one single definition. The details of what constitutes academic legal training will be set out in our Curriculum and Assessment Strategy.   

We believe that vocational training providers are best placed to determine whether or not someone is ready to commence the vocational component of training. They already make admissions decisions and the proposals will enable them to make decisions about students who would normally have come to us to request waivers and exemptions. They will do this in line with guidance that we develop. We will want to see clear evidence of how the guidance is being applied to ensure that standards are being maintained and how organisational policies (particularly those relating to equality, diversity and inclusion) will inform their application of the guidance.

We also propose that training providers should be the ones to decide whether non-graduates or overseas applicants should be allowed to start a Graduate Diploma in Law course again in accordance with guidance which we would set.

The consultation is open for three months until 29 April and you can read the full consultation document, containing the proposals, on our website. We recommend that the FAQs set out on our website should be read before submitting a response.

If we investigate a concern and think the problem is very serious, we pass the case on to the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service (BTAS), an independent organisation that arranges Disciplinary Tribunals for barristers. We have no influence over the members chosen to hear disciplinary cases or the decisions they make. You can read more about our disciplinary tribunals process on our website.

Wayne Lewis (14 – 15 February 2024):

Instructed on a direct access basis acted in a manner which was likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in him or in the profession and/or failed to act in the best interests of his client in that he failed to provide to his direct access client, a suitable client care letter setting out the work he had agreed to perform and neither had Mr Lewis updated the letter or informed his client formally of this change of agreed work to be done. Mr Lewis received, held and controlled and/or handled client money. Mr Lewis failed to repay client money.

Outcome: suspended for 18 months and prohibited from public access work until the requisite course has been completed upon return to practice. Costs of £5,443.

Allan Zalimba Joel Ntata (6 – 7 February 2024):

Behaved in a way which is likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in him or in the profession and did something which could reasonably be seen by the public to undermine his integrity; failed to be open and co-operative with his regulator, the BSB and to report promptly at all.

Outcome: prohibited from obtaining a practising certificate for three months. Costs of MK100,000.00 (approximately £50).

Naseem Ahmed Bajwa
(9 January 2024):

Acted without honesty and integrity and/or undermined his honesty and integrity in that on 11 January 2022 and/or 14 January 2022, he knowingly misled (or alternatively attempted to mislead) the Bar Council and/or the Bar Standards Board, by providing false information as part of his authorisation to practise application.

Outcome: Disbarred. Costs of £2,670.

Further information on findings and sanctions of past hearings can be found on BTAS' website.

We have launched a three-month public consultation to seek views on our proposed approach to revising the definition of academic legal training and to dealing with consequential waivers and exemptions.

Training for the Bar has three components: academic, vocational and work based. We have been reviewing the current rules governing the requirements for successful completion of the academic component of training for practice at the Bar and we think that they no longer effectively promote our objectives of maintaining high standards, flexibility, accessibility, and affordability.

We therefore proposes to simplify the current definition of academic legal training so that it is easier to understand and apply. The revised definition will take into account various requirements that are currently dispersed across the BSB Handbook, the Bar Qualification Manual and the Curriculum and Assessment Strategy into one single definition. The details of what constitutes academic legal training will be set out in our Curriculum and Assessment Strategy.   

We believe that vocational training providers are best placed to determine whether or not someone is ready to commence the vocational component of training. They already make admissions decisions and the proposals will enable them to make decisions about students who would normally have come to us to request waivers and exemptions. They will do this in line with guidance that we develop. We will want to see clear evidence of how the guidance is being applied to ensure that standards are being maintained and how organisational policies (particularly those relating to equality, diversity and inclusion) will inform their application of the guidance.

We also propose that training providers should be the ones to decide whether non-graduates or overseas applicants should be allowed to start a Graduate Diploma in Law course again in accordance with guidance which we would set.

The consultation will be open until 8 April and you can read the full consultation document, containing the proposals, on our website.

In June 2023, we issued a consultation document seeking views on proposed changes which would widen the powers of the BSB and of Disciplinary Tribunals to protect the public by restricting or suspending a barrister’s ability to practise on an interim basis.

Last December, we published a summary of responses to the consultation, and our response. The respondents agreed with our rationale for the changes and the proposed rules changes, and their suggested amendments have been adopted in the new rules.

Following approval from the BSB Board, we have therefore decided to proceed with the following rule changes, subject to approval by the Legal Services Board:

• Giving the Disciplinary Tribunal the power to impose interim restrictions on a barrister’s practising certificate, or the withdrawal of practising rights on an interim basis, where a finding of misconduct has been made but the decision on sanction has been deferred to a later date in order to protect the public and the public interest; and
• Extending our powers to refer a person to an interim suspension panel, by adding a new ground for referral, where it is “necessary to protect the public or is otherwise in the public interest”.

Subject to approval by the Legal Services Board, we expect that the rule changes will come into force later this year. Further updates will be published in due course.

In October 2023 we issued a consultation document seeking views on our regulatory expectations of chambers. This document reflects a series of roundtables with members of chambers and with representatives of the Bar Council, the Legal Practice Management Association and the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks in late 2022 and the first half of 2023. We plan to repeat these roundtables, beginning in the Autumn of 2023, to meet members of the profession in London, Brighton, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Swansea and Newcastle. The full list of events is available below.

The proposals in the paper seek to provide chambers with greater clarity about regulatory expectations in the areas of maintaining standards, pupillage, equality and inclusion, bullying and harassment, wellbeing, access, sanctions and anti-money laundering, information security and governance. Our aim is to consolidate those expectations into a single online resource which we hope will be complemented by resources from the Bar Council, the Specialist Bar Associations, the Inns and Circuits, the Legal Practice Management Association, the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks and other professional organisations designed to promote the sharing of good practice between chambers. The full consultation document is available on our website. We welcome written responses to this paper by 29 February 2024.

The upcoming roundtables are as follows:

• Swansea- Thursday 18 January 2024 at Angel Chambers (Ethos Building, Kings Road, Swansea, SA1 8AS).
• London - Tuesday 23 January 2024 at the BSB offices (289-293 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7HZ).
• Bristol - Wednesday 7 February 2024 at St. John’s Chambers (101 Victoria Street, Bristol, BS1 6PU).
• Birmingham - Thursday 22 February 2024 at St Ives Chambers (1-3 Whittall Street, Birmingham, B4 6DH).
• Brighton - Thursday 29 February 2024 at 1 Crown Office Row (119 Church Street, Brighton, BN1 1UD).

Should you wish to attend any of these events, please email [email protected] as soon as possible, stating any accessibility and dietary requirements.

Last October we published our latest annual Regulatory Decision-Making (RDM) Report. This is the fourth report that we have published since we reformed the way regulatory decisions are taken in October 2019. It covers the period from April 2022 to March 2023.

The report has been streamlined to make it more accessible, engaging, and easier to understand. We have  also published the report as an expandable web page for the first time. Under the new format, we have included information about performance against our regulatory decision key performance indicators (KPIs). We will continue to publish an accompanying statistical report, which now includes charts and graphs that were previously included in the body of the RDM report.

Our focus this year has been delivering our core operations more efficiently, clearing backlogs, reducing caseloads, improving performance, and making sure that we are properly staffed within our operational teams. Despite the challenges we have faced, there have been a number of notable successes. Most significantly, our teams have maintained a very high level of quality in their decision making, which is borne out in the reports from the Independent Reviewers.

The key statistical findings of the report are as follows:

• 1,732 reports were received by the Contact and Assessment Team (CAT) in the period, down from 1,999 in 2021-22.

• Reports about the use of social media increased by 20% and we expect this number to continue to grow.

• Reports about sexual harassment have more than doubled and reports around bullying and harassment continue to rise.

• Cases referred for investigation fell from 236 to 122, a decrease of 48%. 21 out of 25 cases heard at Tribunal were found proved.

• 79 reports were referred to Supervision , compared to 119 the previous year, a decrease of 34%.

• In the reporting period, 101 decisions were reviewed by the Independent Reviewer following a request by one of the parties. In six of these cases, the Independent Reviewer made recommendations for further action, or a reconsideration of the decision reached, and/or concluded that, although an appropriate outcome had been reached, inappropriate factors had been taken into account.

The performance of the BSB’s regulatory operations will continue to be a priority in the coming year. We are also reviewing our decision-making processes, how we monitor and report on them, and how we can make improvements and efficiencies. This work will continue into next year as we start to embed the recommendations for improvement.

The full Regulatory Decision-Making Report 2022-23 is available on our website. A statistical report for the same period is also available on our website.

The Independent Decision-making Body, which takes regulatory decisions on behalf of the BSB that require independent input, also published its annual report. You can read about that report on our website.

In October we published our annual report for the 2022/23 fiscal year, setting out the actions that we have taken to counter money laundering, terrorist financing and economic crime in the period. Although very few barristers are involved in transactions that engage the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs), we are determined to ensure that the Bar plays its part in combatting illicit financing. All barristers have to declare at Authorisation to Practise (when they renew their practising certificate annually) whether they engage in work that falls within the scope of the MLRs. BSB entities must do the same upon authorisation and annual renewal.

This report explains how the Bar Standards Board collaborates with the Government, other regulators, the legal professions and law enforcement to tackle the threat of money laundering, terrorist funding and economic crime. We expect this collaboration to become even more important now that the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act has introduced a new Regulatory Objective into the Legal Services Act 2007, to promote the prevention and detection of economic crime.

Last month we published our second Annual Report to the Board on Bar Training covering the period from September 2022 to November 2023 along with a further report giving detailed statistics on enrolment, results and student progression by course provider.

The Report provides the Board with in-depth insights into how the BSB seeks to ensure that standards are set, met, and assured during both the vocational and pupillage components of Bar training. The Report contains statistics on enrolment, results and trends in vocational training to become a barrister, and student progression onto pupillage in England and Wales showing the relationship between degree classification and university attended and the likelihood of obtaining pupillage. It contains a number of key points from the period under review, including information on the Thematic Review of vocational course providers’ admissions arrangements and how they support student progression; the development of advocacy and negotiation courses during pupillage; our ongoing research into barriers to diversity in pupillage recruitment; and the development of a possible barrister apprenticeship.

We are also publishing our annual report on Bar Training statistics by course provider. This report offers more detailed statistics on results and progression broken down by course provider and aims to provide prospective Bar students with more information about the different courses and course providers which are now available.

Following the conclusion of our consultation on conduct in non-professional life, our Board has approved revised Social Media Guidance, new Guidance on the Regulation of Non-Professional Conduct, the BSB’s response to the consultation and revisions to BSB Handbook guidance.

The Guidance on the Regulation of Non-Professional Conduct seeks to clarify where the regulatory boundaries lie in relation to conduct that occurs outside the scope of a barrister’s professional practice. Such conduct may be of regulatory interest to us because it can have an impact upon public confidence in the barrister or the profession. The rules and duties in the BSB Handbook which apply at all times include that barristers must not behave in a way which is likely to diminish the trust and confidence which the public places in them or in the profession, and that barristers must not do anything which could reasonably be seen by the public to undermine their honesty, integrity and independence.

The revised Social Media Guidance seeks to help barristers understand their duties under the BSB Handbook as they may apply to their use of social media, both in a professional and in a personal/private capacity. The sort of conduct that we may be concerned with includes: the use of language that is seriously offensive, discriminatory, bullying or harassing; linking to or reposting such content without indicating disagreement with it; gratuitous attacks on the judiciary or the justice system; or posting content which might breach client confidentiality. The Social Media Guidance also seeks to make clear that it is the manner in which barristers express their views that is more likely to concern us rather than the substance of that view (although the substance of a barrister’s view may also raise regulatory issues).

In developing these guidance documents, we have sought to strike a balance between barristers’ human rights and their professional obligations under the BSB Handbook.

Our Annual Report for the 2022-23 business year provides a summary of our activities during the period.

2022-23 was the first year of our new Strategic Plan (2022-2025) and was also a year in which the Board targeted improving the timeliness of our operational work, without sacrificing quality. To do so, we significantly re-prioritised our work in 2022/23 to focus on the regulatory operations which form the core of our work and to enable our front-line teams to increase their productivity and responsiveness. The latter part of the year saw a significant increase in the timeliness of our regulatory decision-making - 117 investigations were closed in the second half of the year compared to 60 in the first half. The Board is determined to ensure that performance continues to improve, and this will remain our highest priority in 2023-24.  

Other important initiatives during the year included the Chair and Director General travelling across England and Wales to meet barristers in every circuit to discuss the BSB’s work to encourage best practice in the way chambers promote standards, equality and access. The Board also made notable progress in implementing the reforms set out in the Well Led Action Plan, which include improving the way we manage performance and deals with risk. The reform of pay and reward also enabled marked improvement in our ability to recruit and retain high calibre people in what remains a competitive labour market. Additional reforms will be central to our Business Plan for 2023-24: focusing on achieving operational excellence; encouraging more proactive regulation of the Bar; and bringing about strategic change in our culture and capability.

In a speech at the offices of the Bar Standards Board in July, Mark Neale, the Director General of the BSB, set out five arguments for the independent regulation of the Bar.

He argued that:

• professional regulation is not like the regulation of utilities and the regulator can and should collaborate with the profession – “we are not adversaries”;
• but the interests of the public and those of the profession are not always the same;
• so the regulator must make independent judgements as to how well the profession is serving the public interest;
• the risks and opportunities at the Bar will not necessarily match those of the other legal professions;
• and therefore independence of decision-making and operational and psychological independence are essential to the Bar Standards Board’s ability to do its job. 

He argued that the tradition of self-regulation has been an important safeguard of the independence of the professions from governments or causes and that that independence “is more important now than ever”. Representative and regulatory bodies should work together to secure their shared regulatory objectives set out in the Legal Services Act. They should also be mindful of the need not to duplicate requests for information from the profession and he announced that we will in future make only targeted information requests and not repeat the five yearly regulatory return process.

But he also argued that the long traditions of the Bar may underwrite unexamined practices which no longer work in the interests of consumers or the diversity of the Bar itself.  Would the cumulative decisions being taken now by chambers and employers about how many pupillages to offer necessarily ensure the adequate supply of barristers in every area of practice for example? Or might it be in the interests of both clients and barristers if, when solicitors refer clients to barristers, the client were to be given more choice? 

He also made clear that, while exploiting opportunities to work with the profession and with other regulators, we must always be wholly independent of all other interests, deciding for itself when we should collaborate and when we should act independently. We must focus on operational excellence – matching the quality of decision-making with speed and responsiveness – and must ensure that regulation is always proportionate to risk and evidence-based.

The full recording of the event is available online.

BSB Director General Mark Neale has published a blog on our Maket Study of Digital Comparison Tools. Read his blog on our website. You can also read his latest blog about the Rule of Law.

In June we published a thematic review of sanctions compliance focused on 31 chambers that are members of the Commercial Bar Association. We generally found that barristers were aware of the risks of unwittingly engaging with a designated person without a licence and that they were taking a cautious approach to compliance. We also found examples of good practice which we would encourage all barristers and their chambers or entity staff to consider regardless of their area of practice.

All barristers and BSB entities must comply with the UK’s sanctions regime and must have procedures in place to ensure that sanctions are not breached. We focused this review on the commercial Bar because they were assessed to be the most likely to have exposure to clients subject to the sanctions regime.

The report finds that most chambers had at least some procedures in place to promote a consistent approach and to ensure compliance with the sanctions regime but there was room for improvement in some cases in documenting and implementing those controls. We visited all chambers that provided insufficient assurance in response to an initial questionnaire that appropriate controls were in place.  Where it was found that remedial action was required we have ensured that this has now been carried out.  We want to ensure that chambers’ management committees have mechanisms and guidance in place to assure themselves that risk is appropriately and consistently assessed, and compliance controls are consistently applied.

We welcome the intention of the Bar Council (the representative body) to issue guidance to help ensure consistency in ensuring compliance with the sanctions regime across the profession.

Following a competitive tender, we have appointed the leading law firm Fieldfisher LLP to carry out an end-to-end review of its enforcement system.

The review will look at all our systems, processes and policies with the aim of establishing:

• whether they remain fit for purpose, risk based and proportionate and reflect good regulatory practice;
• whether the processes are effective in facilitating the taking of robust, consistent and legally sound decisions; and
• whether there is scope for greater process and/or operational efficiency in how enforcement cases are handled and decisions taken, including the interface with our supervisory function.

The review will include: 

• assessing the relevant enforcement regulations and associated policy, procedures and guidance;
• seeking the views of relevant internal and external stakeholders including the Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service; and
• considering best practice and its application in the context of the Bar. 

We are exploring the possibility of enabling students who commenced their Bar training from September 2020 onwards to take further re-sits of the elements of assessment that are necessary to be Called to the Bar (which the BSB regulates), even if they have reached the maximum number of permitted re-sits for the academic award at their training provider such as a Postgraduate Diploma or LLM (which the BSB does not regulate). This will be run on a pilot basis initially for BPP students and then will be open for all students. For further information see our website.

In August we decided to vary the University of Hertfordshire’s authorisation to deliver vocational Bar training. Our decision means that the University must now defer its next Bar course intake to January 2024.

We have made this decision in the interests of students. The University has cooperated with us and put a plan in place to strengthen a number of aspects of its course delivery to ensure that it is complying with the mandatory requirements in the Authorisation Framework. This decision provides time for these changes to be embedded.

We will continue to work with the University to ensure the necessary improvements are implemented to enable the Bar course to be offered in January 2024. Meanwhile the University is supporting students who had enrolled on the 2023/24 course either to defer entry to the Bar course or to transfer to another provider.

In May we announced the appointment of Tim Grey as the new Chair of the Independent Decision-making Body (IDB).

The Independent Decision-making Body was established in October 2019, replacing the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC). The IDB is responsible for deciding whether cases of potential professional misconduct are referred to a Disciplinary Tribunal, dealt with under the Determination by Consent procedure, or, if the IDB believes that there is not enough evidence that the Handbook has been breached, to dismiss the allegations. The IDB is made up of a pool of barristers and lay members. Its panels always have a lay majority.

Tim Grey was previously a member of the IDB and is a self-employed barrister, practising in contempt of court, fraud, regulatory and disciplinary law. Having spent his first ten years of practice working in general crime, Tim then moved to the employed Bar for five years where he specialised in financial and healthcare regulation before resuming self-employed practice at 23 Essex Street Chambers in 2013. Tim also sits as a legal advisor to a number of professional regulators.

Further to our press statement on 18 April 2023 regarding the online delivery of exams by Bar training providers in Bangladesh and Pakistan we have reflected further on the need to protect the integrity of the assessment. These are high stakes, professional exams that are the gateway to practice at the Bar and it is critical that the assessment process is secure and robust.

We have therefore taken the decision to cease to permit the use of online assessment delivery platforms by Bar training providers in any country from August 2023. We have informed Bar Training Providers and they will take the necessary steps to put that decision into action. We have not taken this decision lightly, we understand the benefits of a more flexible approach to assessment delivery, nevertheless, we are taking this precautionary measure because we cannot compromise on the integrity of the exams.

In April our Director General Mark Neale published his first external facing blog on our website. In his blog post Mark explored the topic of ethics posing the question ‘What is an ethical lawyer?’ to read more about his thoughts visit the blog.

Our Director General is speaking at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum’s event Next steps for legal education and training on the morning of 17 July 2023. Find out more on our website. To book your place visit the Westminster Legal Policy Forum’s website.

Following a competitive tender, we have appointed the leading law firm Fieldfisher LLP to carry out an end-to-end review of its enforcement system.

The review will look at all of our systems, processes and policies with the aim of establishing:

• whether they remain fit for purpose, risk based and proportionate and reflect good regulatory practice;
• whether the processes are effective in facilitating the taking of robust, consistent and legally sound decisions; and
• whether there is scope for greater process and/or operational efficiency in how enforcement cases are handled and decisions taken, including the interface with our supervisory function.

The review will include: 

• assessing the relevant enforcement regulations and associated policy, procedures and guidance;
• seeking the views of relevant internal and external stakeholders including the Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service; and
• considering best practice and its application in the context of the Bar.

On 13 June we participated in the 10k London Legal Walk to support free frontline legal support services, raising £310.

We walked with the Lord Chief Justice and many lawyers to raise funds for the London Legal Support Trust. The charity event is the biggest fundraising initiative in aid of free legal advice and support for everything from Law Centres and Citizens Advice services to refugee specialist support services.

More than 13.4 million people live in poverty in the UK and advice providers are at breaking point with the increasing need from their clients. Many people cannot afford legal help and everybody should be able to receive legal advice when required.

The London Legal Walk raises vital funds to ensure that legal help reaches the most vulnerable people in society. Receiving good legal advice at the right time can make a huge difference to people's lives reducing their chances of facing debt, poverty, homelessness, exploitation and discrimination.

The event supports more than 100 legal advice agencies in London and the South East to do a fantastic job in changing lives.

Earlier this month we published our annual Business Plan which explains what we shall be doing during 2023-24 to take forward our strategic aims, as set out in the BSB Strategy 2022-2025. 

The Business Plan includes transformative reforms aiming at operational excellence in delivering our core regulatory services, maintaining high quality decision-making and high productivity while delivering a more timely and responsive service. We aim to be engaged and proactive as a regulator, anticipating risks and opportunities, making better use of the intelligence we gather and seeking to ensure that the chambers to which most barristers belong, are themselves effective in overseeing standards, equality and access.  And we also aim to embed a culture of continuous improvement grounded on our values of fairness and respect, independence and integrity and excellence and efficiency. 

Our budget for 2023-24 is £9.3 million. In addition, we will contribute £5.4 million to the common services (such as IT and Finance) which we share with the Bar Council.  Our work is undertaken in the public interest, and we remain committed to providing value-for-money to the profession which funds our work. There is more information about our planned income and expenditure in the Business Plan.

Alongside the Business Plan, we also published a letter to the Legal Services Board and an associated action plan setting out our response to the Legal Services Board’s most recent Regulatory Performance Assessment.  The action plan captures reforms set out in the wider Business Plan and sets milestones for their achievement.

One of our core responsibilities is to be able to assure ourselves, and the public, that members of the BSB’s regulated community are competent to practise. The strategy to assuring standards reflects our risk-based approach to regulation and the trust and confidence that we place in the barrister’s profession to take ownership of its own professional competence. We have established the Assuring Competence Programme to implement this strategy, to evaluate the impact of previous and current regulation to improve professional standards and to make changes where necessary. Undertaking the Assuring Competence Programme will also help us better understand the trends in the profession as well as to target regulatory projects with which to improve standards.

The programme seeks to achieve its aims through many different projects. These include the Ongoing Competence Project, which aims to improve the management of data and intelligence flows into the BSB and to explore if any additional regulatory arrangements are necessary to provide greater assurance of competence. The Coroner’s Court project aims to develop a set of competences and a toolkit for lawyers working in Coroners’ Courts, while the Early Years of Practice project reviews existing policies and Handbook rules which relate to those in the first few years of practice.

The Assuring Competence Programme Board meets on a quarterly basis to monitor progress and drive implementation of the programme. More information on our work to assure the competence of barristers is available on our website.

On the same topic, in February we published our response to our oversight Regulator the Legal Service Board’s (LSB) policy statement on ongoing competence. The response includes an action plan, which sets out our approach to assuring the professional competence of barristers and, in doing so, how it meets the expectations of the LSB’s policy statement.

It is our primary responsibility, as the front-line regulator, to set standards of practice and ensure that they are met and maintained by barristers. We have in place a broad range of measures which support this objective, including:

• The Professional Statement, which describes the knowledge, skills and aptitude that barristers should have as they enter the profession.
• Targeted regulation where there is evidence of concerns in standards of practice – our work on Youth Courts and Coroners Courts are examples of these.
• The BSB Handbook, which defines the core duties and rules relating to practice at the Bar.

The action plan sets out plans to strengthen these arrangements over the coming 12-18 months. This includes:

• The ongoing review of the approach to Continuing Professional Development and in particular the use of feedback and reflective practice to support learning and development.
• Looking at the role of chambers and employers in supporting high standards of practice.
• Improving our intelligence and data analysis capability to ensure that regulatory interventions are targeted and based on a broad range of evidence.
• A review of the regulation of the early years of practice at the Bar to build on the expectations outlined in the Professional Statement.
• Enhancing our intelligence gathering and analysis and strengthening our intelligence sharing arrangements with other regulators and organisations such as the Legal Ombudsman.

Following a consultation process in April 2022, the Legal Ombudsman (LeO) has made several revisions to their existing Scheme Rules, with the changes applying as of 1 April 2023.

The LeO’s Scheme Rules set out the framework for how they resolve complaints between authorised persons including barristers and complainants such as members of the public. The following resources are available on their website:

• Guidance on the changes: this document outlines the key changes to the LeO’s Scheme Rules and includes suggested wording for service providers to use in their client care letters – both before and after the changes have gone live.
• Scheme Rules FAQs: this FAQ document is an updated version of the existing Scheme Rules FAQs but includes information relating to the application of the amended rules. This document is for complaints received on or after 1 April 2023. The document also includes some case studies to illustrate the guidance provided.
• Scheme Rules: this page includes both the LeO’s current Scheme Rules document and the amended Scheme Rules document which applies to complaints received by them from 1 April 2023. As the changes are not being applied retrospectively to complaints the LeO receives before 1 April, the old Scheme Rules document will remain available for information.

Alongside work to update their Scheme Rules, the LeO has also developed a one-page consumer leaflet outlining how and when they can help. This is aimed at ensuring that consumers contact them at the right time – after a service provider has had a chance to address their complaint. It isn’t mandatory for service providers to use this leaflet. However, it is intended as a simple way for providers to help convey the key information about LeO they are required to in their client care communication.

The leaflet is available to download from the LeO’s website in English and Welsh. Service providers are responsible for meeting any additional accessibility needs their individual customers may have.

The LeO also set up a dedicated email address for enquiries relating to the new Scheme Rules: [email protected]. If service providers have any queries regarding the changes or if they would like to talk to one of the Ombudsman about the application of the new rules, they can contact them using the email address above and they will be able to provide further information and guidance to assist with the query.

This guide sets out what the changes are and how they apply, and what service providers need to do to prepare for the changes going live. Read more on the LeO’s website.

Last month we published:

• an interim report from AlphaPlus evaluating our Future Bar Training (FBT) reforms;
• our 2023 Bar Training Report, covering the period from 2011/12 to 2022/23 and
• the Central Examinations Board (CEB) Chair’s Report, which presents the latest results for candidates sitting the centralised assessments in civil and criminal litigation in December 2022.

Our reforms were designed to make Bar training more flexible, accessible, and affordable while maintaining high standards. In 2019, we commissioned AlphaPlus Consultancy Ltd to evaluate the reforms. Their report looks at how the reforms are being implemented and explains that new training routes have become available since the introduction of the reforms, with four different training pathways authorised by us, while maintaining the traditional three components (academic, vocational, and pupillage). The report also outlines how vocational training providers have changed their approach to delivering Bar training, including by adopting more online delivery, greater flexibility for students, and some providers offering a ‘two-step’ vocational training component.

The majority of vocational authorised education and training organisations (AETOs) believed that the reforms gave them the opportunity to offer greater flexibility and reduce costs and increase choice to students. Those training providers interviewed during the evaluation generally welcomed the introduction of our Professional Statement, and considered the Authorisation Framework to be helpful, although some training providers did find the authorisation process itself to be time-consuming. The restrictions necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic were found to have had a negative impact on the learning experiences of some students on the vocational component, especially the 2020 – 2021 cohort.

The evaluation work will continue over the next year, with a further report to evaluate the impact of the reforms against their key objectives of greater flexibility, improved accessibility, improved affordability, and continued high standards.

Our 2023 Bar Training Report contains statistics on enrolment, results and trends in vocational training to become a barrister, and student progression onto pupillage in England and Wales.  Since the reforms were introduced, there are now two additional providers of the course, and it is now offered at five additional sites. Vocational Bar training courses are also offered via several different pathways, increasing flexibility for students. The data from the Report also demonstrate that course fees from 2020/21 onwards have decreased quite substantially compared to the fees previously charged for the BPTC. The average cost per Bar training student (adjusted for inflation) was £14,000 in 2021/22, compared to £18,700 in 2018/19, a saving of £4,700. 

The Report also shows that the proportion of UK-domiciled students from a minority ethnic background has increased over the period from 23 per cent to 39 per cent, with the increase principally driven by those from Asian/Asian British backgrounds, and those from Mixed/Multiple ethnic backgrounds. You can read our Bar Training 2023 Report on our website.

The Central Examinations Board (CEB) Chair’s Report explains how the CEB rigorously assesses the results of the centralised examinations to ensure that they are fair. It shows that the centralised assessments remain demanding examinations with an average pass rate for the December sitting of around 56% for civil litigation and around 50% for criminal litigation. The Report also shows the variation in pass rates between different providers. The Report explains some of the factors that may lead to these variations. We will be examining this in our forthcoming thematic review of providers’ admissions arrangements which will also look at how they ensure that standards are maintained once a student is admitted and what systems are in place to ensure that a student develops to their full potential. You can read the full report on our website.

In January we published a summary of the latest available diversity data for the Bar.

Overall, the data shows the continuation in 2022 of several longer-term trends, including an increase in the proportion of practising barristers who are female; who are from a minority ethnic background; who have primary care of a child; who have a disability; and who are aged 55 or more. The most noticeable increase was a rise of 3.3 percentage points in the proportion of pupils who are female to 59.9 per cent.  

The percentage of barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds at the Bar has increased 0.5pp since December 2021 to 16.3 per cent. That compares to an estimate of 16.4 per cent of the working age population in England and Wales as of July-September 2022. But barristers from Black/Black British backgrounds are still underrepresented at 3.4% of the Bar compared to 3.8% in the working age population as a whole.

There has been a continued increase in the proportion of all practitioners who are female, better reflecting the demographics of the UK population, with the proportion of women at the Bar having increased 0.4pp since December 2021. As of December 2022, women constituted 39.7 per cent of the Bar compared to an estimate of 50.2 per cent of the UK working age population. 

This Report sets out an evidence base from which relevant and targeted policy can be developed which will support us in meeting our statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010, the Legal Services Act 2007 and in achieving its equality and diversity objectives under the Equality and Diversity Strategy 2022-2025. You can read the full report on our website. In March 2023, we also published our annual report on the diversity of our workforce and Board members.

Last September we published our latest annual report and cost transparency metrics. This report covers our activities between April 2021 and March 2022.

During this period, COVID-19 continued to have an impact on the courts, the profession and the public as well as our people, who had to continue to work from home for much of the year. Our employees worked hard to maintain, and even increase, their productivity but the loss of key people, and difficulty in recruiting new people, did affect our work in several areas, as detailed in the report. During the period, and despite this challenging backdrop, we made considerable progress in several areas, including:

•  Work to promote equality, diversity and inclusion at the Bar and to address bullying, discrimination and harassment remained a very high priority. Our annual report on Diversity at the Bar showed that the profession became increasingly diverse in 2021, with the overall percentage of barristers from minoritized communities now matching the proportion of people from those communities in the working age population in England and Wales and the report for 2022 will be coming out soon.
• Over the past year we have been carefully analysing responses to our Regulatory Return questionnaire which was designed to assess risk within barristers’ practices and to improve their understanding of the levels of compliance with our rules. We analysed the responses received, following up where necessary with individual practices, and determining appropriate regulatory policy action for the future depending on the trends shown in the returns. The Regulatory Return informed the three-year strategy which we published in April 2022.

We are guided by our statutory Regulatory Objectives and our core regulatory work includes overseeing the education and training requirements for becoming a barrister; monitoring the standards of conduct of barristers and taking action when we believe the standards are not being met; and assuring the public that everyone we authorise to practise is competent to do so. The report shows that:

•  As of 31 March 2022, there were 17,170 registered regulated barristers in England and Wales, with a further 55,894 barristers without practising certificates who are also subject to our regulation.
• 22 barristers had a disciplinary finding against them following a Disciplinary Tribunal, with seven of them being suspended and eight of them disbarred.
•  We successfully processed 1,211 applications for waivers and exemptions from our rules over the year.

You can read the full BSB Annual Report 2021-22 online. We  also published a separate document alongside its Annual Report, the “Cost Transparency Metrics for 2021-22” which seeks to summarise and explain our  costs.

Last September we announced the appointment of Gisela Abbam FRSA MBA as a new lay Board member. Gisela Abbam’s appointment was effective from 1 October 2022. This month Jeffrey Chapman KC and Simon Lewis took up their appointments as new barrister Board members. Current barrister Board member Irena Sabic was also reappointed for another four years. Read more about our Board Members on our website.

We have launched a 12-month digital comparison tool (DCT) pilot. DCTs allow consumers to locate and select service providers, using a range of criteria such as location, ratings and reviews to help with this process. We are encouraging barristers to sign up to this pilot, to help us evaluate and understand how this market works for the Bar and its consumers.

Our pilot follows on from, and builds on, an earlier DCT pilot led by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Council for Licenced Conveyancers and CILEx Regulation. The pilot initially focuses on employment law. This focus does not prevent barristers who specialise in other areas of law from joining our pilot if they wish. We are inviting both public access and referral barristers to take part.

Our Regulatory Objectives include “protecting and promoting public interest”, “improving access to justice”, “promoting competition in the provision of services”, and “protecting and promoting the interests of consumers”. This pilot will help us understand whether and how the DCT market could further these objectives.

We currently have five DCTs signed up our pilot. The nature of the ratings and reviews, and other services offered, varies between DCTs.

Full information about the pilot is available on our dedicated webpage. We also held a webinar on 20 October 2022 with a panel discussion on the pilot and opportunity for attendees to ask questions regarding the pilot.

Following on from the launch of our Equality Strategy earlier in the year, in September 2022 we published a Religion and Belief toolkit. The toolkit has been developed by our Religion and Belief Taskforce. We have a regulatory objective under the Legal Services Act to promote diversity at the Bar and this toolkit is intended to provide chambers and entities with practical information and guidance relevant to the most common religions and beliefs in the UK (as per the 2011 census). It is aimed at increasing inclusivity amongst the profession by outlining the various belief and religious customs which may potentially impact members of staff, clients and the wider public. It also includes an annual calendar, setting out guidance on the key dates for each major religion.

The toolkit aims to provide as much relevant information as possible to help promote positive dialogue between chambers and their members, pupils, staff and clients. But it cannot fully reflect the range of differences across various faith and religious groups and so is not a substitute for self-study, further research or (most importantly) effective dialogue as to how belief practices can be accommodated at work.

Our Religion and Belief Taskforce was set up in March 2021. The taskforce aims to support and advise us on how best to raise the awareness of differing religions and beliefs amongst the profession, to address the lack of inclusive action and discussion of religions and belief, to encourage a more inclusive environment, and help to eliminate any religion or belief related discrimination at the Bar.

In September 2022 we also published two important documents which address culture at the Bar.

The first is a Report on Addressing Bullying and Harassment at the Bar. Through our Addressing Bullying and Harassment at the Bar project, launched in 2019, and the 2020 report on Bullying, Discrimination and Harassment at the Bar, we have sought to reduce the risks of bullying and harassment at the Bar, to ensure that effective systems are in place in chambers to handle reports of bullying and harassment, and to encourage the profession to tackle this issue effectively. After engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, we are now seeking to clarify what role chambers should play in promoting culture change and addressing bullying and harassment, which behaviours should be reported to us, what reporting routes are available, and how we deal with such reports. We hope to increase the number of reports being made, given the current problem of underreporting, and to demonstrate that such behaviours are not tolerated.

In our  Equality Strategy, we recognise that there is a continuing need to improve the culture at the Bar and to ensure a supportive environment for all barristers and pupils in order to  achieve the objective of encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective profession. Our Commitment to Wellbeing Statement  acknowledges that the wellbeing of barristers is important if they are to meet their own duties and, accordingly, that wellbeing is essential to the achievement of our broader regulatory objectives. The commitments detailed in the Statement will inform and guide the implementation of a range of activities under the Equality Strategy, including, for example, updating our Equality Rules, setting good practice expectations of chambers, and the promotion of equality and inclusion. The full Statement is available to read on our website.

In October we published our annual report setting out the action that we have taken to counter money laundering and terrorist financing. Although very few barristers are involved in transactions that engage the Money Laundering Regulations, we are determined to ensure that the Bar plays its part in combatting illicit financing.

During the annual renewal of their practising certificates, or authorisations, all barristers and BSB entities (businesses that specialise in the type of work typically undertaken by barristers) have to declare whether they engage in work that falls within the scope of the Regulations. We have worked closely with the profession to ensure that they do so accurately, so that its supervisory activity is properly focused.

The report provides an opportunity for us to share the work we are doing to prevent the Bar becoming involved in money laundering and to explain what everyone can do to support that work. It also sets out the action being taken in response to reports of possible breaches of the Regulations. Our Money Laundering Hotline is a confidential service that anyone can use to report a concern to us about a person or an organisation they regulate, in connection with money laundering.

Last month we published our latest annual Regulatory Decision-making Report. This is the third Regulatory Decision-Making report that we have published since we reformed the way regulatory decisions are taken in October 2019. It covers the period from April 2021 to March 2022.

The impact of COVID-19 on the effective operation of our regulatory activities lessened in the reported period, and both the productivity and quality of decision making has remained high. But we continued to see increases in the number and complexity of reports about barristers’ conduct and in the resulting investigations and increases also in applications for waivers and exemptions from practising requirements. This has affected our ability to meet service standards for the timeliness of decisions. We have increased our resources to ensure that we can again meet our key service standards as soon as possible and we are developing a more balanced set of performance metrics for the future that will both hold us to account for all aspects of our decision making and provide a clearer and more accurate picture on overall performance externally.

The key statistical findings of the report are as follows:

• 2,517 reports about the conduct of barristers were dealt with, a 54% increase on 2020-21

• Cases involving social media rose from 49 (involving 27 barristers) in 2020-21 to 89 (involving 36 barristers)

• 164 referrals were accepted for investigation and 106 investigations were decided compared to 128 and 91 such cases in 2020-21

• 119 reports were referred for consideration by the BSB’s Supervision team an increase of 35% and a further 90 cases were received directly by the team compared to 27 in 2020-21.

• The number of barristers disbarred in 2021-2022 increased slightly to six, compared to four in 2020-21, ten in 2019-20, and four in 2018-19.

• Seven barristers were suspended in 2021-22, compared to nine in 2020-2021, fifteen in 2019-20, and four in 2018-19.

• During 2021-22 the BSB dealt with a total of 1,211 applications for authorisations, exemptions and waivers – 6% more than in 2020-21;

• 131 decisions in the reporting period were reviewed and in 7 cases the Independent Reviewer made recommendations for further action, or a reconsideration of the decision reached, and/or concluded that although the right outcome had been reached, other factors should have been taken into account.

The performance of our regulatory operations will continue to be a priority and during 2023/24 we will also be carrying out a review of our decision-making processes to ensure that they remain efficient and robust. The report also highlights examples where we have taken active steps to identify potential risks to high standards of practice and to address them through targeted and proportionate interventions.

The full Regulatory Decision-making Report 2021-22 is available on our website. A statistical report for the same period is also available on our website. The Independent Decision-making Body, which takes regulatory decisions on our behalf that require independent input, has also published its annual report. You can also read about that report on our website.

In December 2022 we published two important documents which aim to improve the transparency of Bar training.

Our Bar training report for 2022, is the first in an annual series looking at how Bar Training is delivering on the four objectives of affordability, accessibility, flexibility and high standards set by us in our reforms of Bar training. The report shows that, as a result of the reforms, Bar training is now provided by more providers across more locations. At most course providers the cost of Bar training has fallen in real terms compared to the cost of the previous vocational training course.

The annual Bar Training Statistics Report 2022, which is now being presented in a much more accessible format and includes new material, includes information on the different pathways offered, and fees charged, across the ten currently authorised course providers. The report also covers pass rates across the different providers, as well as statistics on progression into pupillage, broken down both by course provider and degree class. It is principally aimed at providing prospective students with comparable information on the different course providers at which they may be considering studying.

The report shows that, of the first cohort of students to enter the reformed Bar training courses between July and October 2020, 65% have now passed all elements of the course. There are differences between providers, with pass rates varying between 49% and 94%. These numbers may, however, rise as students who have not yet passed do so.

The report shows that outcomes for students at Bar training are strongly correlated with first degree results and, accordingly, the results achieved by providers also reflect the first degrees achieved by their students. We have committed to undertaking a thematic review of providers’ admission policies in the year ahead as part of our commitment to maintaining high standards on Bar training courses.

One of our objectives is to improve access to a career at the Bar for those from currently under-represented backgrounds. Access is at the heart of how we approve and monitor training providers. We are particularly keen to ensure that the process of recruitment to pupillage is fair and inclusive and are about to launch a new research project to examine the advantages and disadvantages of different recruitment approaches.

On 7 December 2022, in collaboration with our Disability Taskforce, we held an event to hear from disabled barristers about their experiences navigating their careers at the Bar, the barriers that they have faced, and what factors have helped them to progress. The event was hosted by the chambers known as 7BR (7 Bedford Row). The Taskforce shared its vision of how regulation might play a part in supporting a more disability aware and inclusive profession and discussed examples of disability inclusion best practice across the profession. You can view the recording of the event on our YouTube channel.

During the event a short film was premiered, commissioned by the Taskforce and filmed by Taskforce member Mary Griffiths-Clark. It tells the stories of disabled people at different stages of their legal careers. The film is intended to encourage viewers to think about how they might increase the inclusion and retention of disabled people at the Bar. You can view the film on our website and YouTube channel, including a version with audio description.

A number of speakers contributed to the event, including practising and unregistered disabled barristers, such as Diane Lightfoot, Haleemah Farooq, Dr Gregory Burke, Daniel Holt and Christina Warner. One speaker, Mark Henderson, who is a member of Doughty Street Chambers, also recently authored a blog post for the Bar Council titled Tackling disability discrimination at the Bar and in courts.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and access to justice at the Bar, with disability being a key area of focus, a commitment which has been reaffirmed through our membership of the Business Disability Forum. We believe that the Bar must seek to reflect the society which it serves and to harness diverse talent effectively. A Bar which comprises diverse lived experiences and perspectives strengthens the quality of service provided. Creating a more inclusive culture will help to ensure that people from the widest possible talent pool are able to join the profession and progress successfully.

We are happy to share a new 20-minute film about 'How to start a tenancy without being treated unfairly' in Arabic (w/ English subtitles on YouTube). Produced by Advice Now in partnership with the Refugee Council and with funding from the BSB and Allen Overy, you can view the full video on YouTube.

In July we announced that Kathryn Stone OBE will succeed the Rt Hon the Baroness Blackstone as our new Chair as of 1 September 2022.

Welcoming her appointment, Mark Neale, our Director General said "Kathryn has been a Board member since January 2018 and she has provided invaluable advice and support to the BSB over the past four years. She has had a distinguished career in public life and I very much look forward to working with her in her new role as our Chair."

Commenting on her new role, Kathryn Stone OBE said "I am delighted to have been appointed as the new Chair of the Bar Standards Board. The BSB's vision is to regulate the Bar in the public interest by promoting high standards, equality and access to justice. I look forward to ensuring that the BSB works in collaboration with the profession, other legal regulators, legal consumers and all our stakeholders to ensure that that vision can be achieved."

We have launched a three-month public consultation on our proposed approach to the regulation of non-professional conduct and on barristers’ use of social media. Simultaneously, interim Social Media Guidance has been published, which will be updated following the consultation. The consultation documents and interim Social Media Guidance were both developed with input from a stakeholder reference group consisting of external experts (including practising barristers) and our Board members.

We are seeking to clarify where the boundaries should lie in the regulation of conduct that occurs in a barrister’s private/personal life (which we refer to as “non-professional life” or “non-professional conduct”), taking account of the circumstances where it is accepted in case law that it might be legitimate for regulators to intervene. Non-professional conduct may be of regulatory interest to us because barristers’ conduct in their private/personal lives can have an impact upon the public’s confidence in them as individual barristers or in the wider profession. Regulation must therefore balance barristers’ human rights against the public interest in preserving public confidence.

We are also revising our Social Media Guidance which applies to barristers in their professional and non-professional lives. We are seeking to strike the right balance between regulatory intervention in relation to social media use and freedom of expression (as protected by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act 1998). A revised Social Media Guidance document is included in the consultation, but in the interim, we are also publishing a revision of the previous guidance.

The full consultation documents can be accessed on our website. The consultation closes on 20 October 2022 at 5pm.

We have published two new reports on compliance with our transparency rules and the impact on consumers of these rules.

The first report, titled Compliance with the price, service and redress transparency rules, examines how well self-employed barristers, chambers and BSB entities are meeting the requirements of the transparency rules, which were first introduced in 2019. The report shows that the Bar has made encouraging progress in ensuring compliance with the transparency rules, as only 6% of those assessed during the period in question were neither compliant nor partially compliant with the rules. This result is a significant improvement on the figure of 25% from our last report in 2020 and is clear evidence that the Bar is making progress in meeting the transparency requirements and successfully implementing the guidance we issued.

The second report, Transparency Rules Evaluation: Impact on Consumers (see also the research summary) was conducted to explore the impact on legal consumers of the transparency rules by looking at a number of key indicators relating to the objectives of the rules. These rules are designed to improve the information available to the public about the services a barrister can offer, their likely costs and how barristers are regulated so that consumers have more information to help them engage the services of a barrister. This report follows an earlier report which looked at the impact of the rules on the profession which can be found on our website.

The report found that among barristers’ clients, the proportion who obtained details of service or price before choosing a barrister increased from 10.25% on both indicators in 2019, to 23.4% obtaining details of services and 25.7% obtaining prices in 2021. The levels and proportions of complaints that relate to overall cost and clarity of information around costs have both declined, as has the level and proportion of complaints that relate to the timescales of cases. The percentage of clients ‘shopping around’ when choosing a barrister also appears to have increased – in 2019, 7.4% of barristers’ clients obtained details of services from more than one provider when making a choice, compared to 17.5% in 2021. Similarly, the proportion of all clients obtaining prices from more than one barrister has increased from 6.4% in 2019 to 19.8% in 2021. Awareness among clients of the regulatory status of their barrister has also increased from 63.3% to 71.3% (and to 83.7% for public access clients) and awareness of complaints procedures has also increased although the number of complaints from clients has fallen. 

This evaluation will be used to inform the next phases of our work around ensuring transparency for clients, including:

• this year, we will launch pilots on Digital Comparison Tools (DCTs) and unbundling in order to understand whether such approaches can promote access to barristers’ services for consumers and, depending on the outcome of the evaluation of the pilots, how the transparency rules should evolve to reflect the lessons learned.
• based on the information we have gathered through our compliance and supervision work, we will review our guidance to ensure there is sufficient clarity around current requirements and review how we communicate these requirements to the profession.
• while we are undertaking the DCT pilot and a pilot looking at the “unbundling” of legal services (which will provide a fuller evidence base in relation to third party platforms) we will consider whether there is a need for further interim guidance on how to share information with marketing platforms, particularly where that is the primary means through which barristers share information about their services.
• we will also consider whether we need further amendments to any rules or guidance.
• Next year we will consider whether we have evidence to go further in our transparency requirements in any area of practice
• In the longer term we will reconsider whether another evaluation might be helpful of the transparency rules (including of any incremental changes that are introduced).
• And on an ongoing basis:
  • we will continue to check compliance of the Bar with the rules.

we will continue to work closely with other regulators through the Market Transparency and Competition Oversight Group (MTCOG), the Remedies Programme Implementation Group, and the cross-regulator quality indicators working group to monitor the impact of the relevant transparency rules.

In July we published a new Equality Strategy and a new Research Strategy.

The new Equality Strategy sets out four main objectives with several actions arising from those objectives.  They follow engagement with stakeholders and a review of relevant research.

The four objectives are to:

•          clarify our expectations of the Bar concerning equality, diversity and inclusion and to highlight opportunities for change;
•          hold the Bar to account for reducing racial and other inequalities across the profession;
•          promote a culture of inclusion at the Bar and in legal services more generally; and
•          build a diverse and inclusive workforce ensuring that we are an example of the approach we are promoting.

Some of the key actions arising from these objectives include:

•          reviewing the obligations of barristers and chambers under the Equality Rules in the BSB Handbook
•          collaborating with the Bar Council and others to promote greater equality at the Bar
•          ensuring that chambers promote inclusion, and strengthening chambers’ governance, including the role of the Equality and Diversity Officer
•          continuing to tackle bullying, discrimination and harassment at the Bar and
•          reviewing our recruitment processes and undertaking research into recruitment at the Bar.

The strategy seeks to promote the regulatory objective of encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession and to satisfy our duties under the Equality Act. It also seeks to identify areas where we are best placed to act, and where we should seek to collaborate with the profession and others who share our objectives.

We also published our Research Strategy which will support these and other policy initiatives.

To mark Disability Pride Month in July 2022, we launched a new web page for our Disability Taskforce. The Taskforce, which was formed in July 2021 works to make the Bar a more inclusive profession for disabled people. We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and access to justice at the Bar, with disability being a key area of focus, a commitment which has been reaffirmed through our membership of the Business Disability Forum.

The Taskforce advises us on:

• how regulatory tools can be used to influence improved disability equality outcomes at the Bar;
• reviewing and improving routes into the Bar, making it a more accessible and inclusive profession;
• improving the culture at the Bar to strengthen the retention of disabled barristers; and
• ensuring that we as an employer is setting an example for best practice in disability inclusion.

Disability status is under reported, with only 53.7 per cent of the Bar providing this monitoring information to us. 3.1 per cent of the Bar; 4.7 per cent of pupils; 3.3 per cent of non-QC barristers; and 1.4 per cent of QCs had declared a disability as of December 2019. Across law firms – only 3 per cent of lawyers declared they had a disability in 2019 using the Equality Act (2010) definition, this compares to an estimated 19% of the working age population. This under reporting reflects the need to foster a more inclusive environment where disabled barristers feel comfortable sharing this information and are confident that they will be supported.

We believe that the Bar must seek to reflect the society which it serves and to harness diverse talent effectively. A Bar which comprises diverse lived experiences and perspectives strengthens the quality of service provided. Diverse teams bring better problem solving, more creativity and innovation and ultimately are better placed to serve all our customers. Creating a more inclusive culture will help to ensure that people from the widest possible talent pool are able to join the profession and progress successfully.

In July we published the Differential outcomes on the Bar Professional Training Course - 2014-2020 report, which presents research conducted into differential outcomes for different demographic groups/characteristics (such as age, and ethnicity) of modules on the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC). The BPTC was the vocational stage for those training to become a barrister in England and Wales from 2011/12-2019/20. The research conducted focussed on the centralised assessments (Civil Litigation, Criminal Litigation and Professional Ethics) and the data set used includes the first sits of each exam between 2014-2020.

We have a statutory duty to encourage an independent, strong, diverse, and effective legal profession. Together with previous research we have conducted on differential outcomes, this report enables us to monitor the results of the centralised assessments, and other modules in vocational training, and highlight any trends present in terms of different outcomes by demographic group.

The report analysed outcomes on the BPTC against a wide range of characteristics and found that the most significant variables were ethnicity and previous academic attainment. The most notable finding from this research was the gap relating to ethnicity, which was consistently apparent over this period. Differences in outcomes by ethnicity were similar across the centralised BPTC assessments, which we set, and other modules, which were set by course providers, but academic history (degree class and institution) showed a stronger relationship with the results on the centralised assessments than on other modules.

The attainment gap for students from minority ethnic backgrounds is not unique to training for the Bar but remains a particular cause for concern. There are opportunities therefore to learn from other legal regulators and other sectors when looking at our response to this research, but it should be noted that no sector has yet found easy or straightforward answers to the problem of differential outcomes.

The BPTC has now been replaced following the reforms to Bar training that enabled a wider range of pathways and included some changes to assessments. Nevertheless, this research highlights some important issues that we will include when evaluating the introduction of the new Bar Course and in our wider work on equality and diversity. We have several strands of work that seek to achieve these objectives and for which this research has and will continue to provide valuable evidence. For example, these research findings have been used to inform our three year strategy, and shape recommendations about our approach to Equality and Diversity at the Bar. They will also serve as a benchmark for future research into these issues. In addition, as part of our supervisory function, we will carry out a thematic review of the admissions arrangements of authorised training providers and how they ensure that standards are maintained once a student is admitted and what systems are in place to ensure that a student develops to their full potential, whatever their starting point.

The full report is accessible on our website. We have also published a research summary and a document entitled Differential Outcomes Research – Ongoing and proposed work addressing the issues found.

In April, we published our Strategy for the next three years and our Business Plan for 2022-23.

The Strategy, which our Board agreed on 31 March and reflects views offered by stakeholders during a recent public consultation, sets out our high-level strategic priorities and proposes five key strategic aims:

• Efficiency – delivering core regulatory operations quickly, economically and to a high standard.
• Standards – ensuring that barristers provide a high quality and responsive service throughout their careers.
• Equality – promoting equality, diversity and inclusion at the Bar and at the BSB and the profession’s ability to serve diverse consumers.
• Access – promoting consumer understanding of legal services and choice and good value in using those services (covering both the supply of, and demand for, barristers’ services).
• Independence – strengthening our independence, capability self-confidence and credibility.

The strategy is set in the context of our statutory regulatory objectives and takes into account the Legal Services Board’s priorities. The document also lists our key priorities over the next three years under each strategic aim.

The Business Plan focuses on our priorities for the coming year set against the same five strategic aims and statutory regulatory objectives.  The Plan also explains how we intend to allocate its budget for the year. 

On 23 June 2022, we published a statement about barristers who planned to participate in the strike action from 27 June 2022 as a result of a ballot by the Criminal Bar Association.

The guidance reminds barristers of their duties to the court and to their clients but we do not expect that the strike will lead to many reports of potential professional misconduct.  As our latest Strategic Plan makes clear, we share the concerns of many about the sustainability of the publicly funded Bar and about access to justice. The statement makes clear that barristers have the right to take action provided they continue to meet their duties to the court and to their clients. 

We have collaborated with our oversight regulator, the Legal Services Board (LSB) and other legal organisations to produce a new website tracking the efforts being made to ensure the legal services market works better for consumers: Reshapinglegalservices.org.uk. 

The website was produced with input from stakeholders across the legal sector, including Kingsley Napley, LawtechUK, and the Legal Services Consumer Panel. It is managed and hosted by the LSB. It is a central source for research and data dashboards, blogs, and insights that illustrate the progress made by the wide range of people and organisations with a role to play in delivering against the ten-year sector-wide strategy, Reshaping Legal Services 

The strategy aims to reshape legal services to better meet society’s needs, through fairer outcomes, stronger confidence and better services. There are dashboards aligned to the nine challenges set out in the strategy, covering several metrics, including the economic health of the sector, levels of unmet legal needs and diversity across the legal professions. 

The platform also includes blogs from legal services regulators, consumer organisations, lawyers, and others including one titled Income at the Bar by Gender and Ethnicity by our Head of Equality and Access to Justice Shadae Cazeau and our Research and Evaluation Manager Oliver Jackling. This article uses data to understand income inequality at the Bar and to strengthen the evidence base for work to address retention and progress issues. 

The site will be developed to share projects and ideas from across the sector and help identify positive practices and areas that need more attention.

In a speech to the Legal Practice Management Association our Director General Mark Neale, encouraged practice managers to work with the BSB to promote standards, equality and access at the Bar.

Mr Neale set out our strategy for the next three years and stressed the vital role of chambers in:

• promoting high standards - by acting as the conduits for feedback to barristers on their performance;
• ensuring equality and inclusion – particularly in the areas of recruitment, work allocation and career progression;
• countering bullying and harassment; and
• in facilitating access for consumers - by improving consumers’ understanding of the services barristers can provide and of the price and quality of those services.    

While he made clear that we are not currently seeking to regulate chambers themselves, he said that he wanted to encourage them all to adopt best practice in these areas and to go beyond the minimum regulatory requirements where possible.

In his speech, Mr Neale said:

“We are not setting out to regulate chambers themselves. But we do want chambers and the profession to be allies in advancing our regulatory objectives.  To achieve that, we all have to be clear what good practice looks like.  And there is plenty of good practice on which to draw and to build.

I want to see senior barristers, alongside chambers chief executives, championing standards, equality and access within chambers to demonstrate that these things matter and to deliver effective reform.”

In January we published our annual report on Diversity at the Bar. The report shows that the profession became increasingly diverse in 2021 and that a greater proportion of barristers disclosed their demographic data.

Men still outnumber women at the Bar, but the overall percentage of barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds now matches the proportion of people from minority ethnic backgrounds in the working age population in England and Wales. Women and barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds remain underrepresented as Queen’s Counsel and people from a Black/Black British background remain underrepresented at all levels of the Bar.

Some of the key findings[1] include:

• The percentage of women practising at the Bar overall increased by 0.6 percentage points to 38.8 percent during the last year;
• Male QCs still outnumber female QCs, but the percentage of female QCs increased from 16.8 per cent in December 2020 to 17.9 per cent (1.1 percentage points) in December 2021;
• As of December 2021, 56.6 per cent of pupils were women and 43.4 per cent were men (when excluding those that have not provided information on gender). The proportion of women pupils is broadly in line with that seen in 2019, and is almost 7 percentage points higher than that seen in 2020;
• The percentage of practising barristers from minority ethnic groups overall increased by 0.5 percentage points in 2021 to 14.7 per cent, matching the estimate of the percentage of the working age population in England and Wales (as of July-September 2021);
• Different minority ethnic groups have varied levels of representation at the Bar. The report presents disaggregated data for different minority ethnic groups:
• Asian/Asian British barristers made up 7.8 percent of the practising Bar in December 2021 – an increase of 0.2 percentage points year on year (or 2.7%). This compares with 6.4 percent of the working age population who identify as Asian/Asian British;
• The proportion of practising barristers who are Black/Black British rose by 0.04 percentage points to 3.3 percent in 2021; this compares with around 3.6 percent of the working age population;
• 3.6 per cent of the practising Bar are from a Mixed/Multiple ethnic background as compared with around 1.7 percent of the working age population;
• The percentage of QCs from minority ethnic backgrounds has increased by 0.8 percentage points year on year to 9.6 per cent;
• The proportion of pupil barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds decreased by 3.2 percentage points from a record high in 2020 to 19.8 per cent, but remains higher than for any year between 2015 and 2019, and higher than those from these backgrounds in the working age population;
• Of the 60.2 per cent of barristers who provided information on disability status to us, only 6.8 per cent disclosed a disability. This is substantially lower than the percentage of disabled people in the employed working age UK population estimated at 16.4 per cent; and
• The number of pupils as of December 2021 was 511, which is 157 more than that seen in December 2020, and slightly higher than the average number of pupils each December from 2015-2019, which was 472

The response rate amongst barristers disclosing their diversity information increased across all categories in 2021 except for a very small decrease for gender which was already over 99 percent.

We have a statutory responsibility to monitor and promote equality and diversity both as an employer and as the regulator of barristers in England and Wales.

The full 2021 report on diversity at the Bar can be found on our website.

[1] .  In each category percentages are expressed as including those barristers who did not provide data except in the case of ethnicity and disability where they are excluded. For the latter, this is in order to make more like for like comparisons with national level data which also excludes non-responses.

Our Chair Baroness Tessa Blackstone has announced that she will be stepping down this summer to focus on other activities. We advertised for her successor with applications closing in June and it is hoped that an announcement will be made in August. Baroness Blackstone has been Chair of the BSB since 1 January 2018 and has made a very significant contribution to our governance over the period.

Baroness Blackstone said: “I have very much enjoyed my time working with the BSB and with the profession and I leave my post with a profound appreciation of the importance of the Bar to society and to the rule of law and of the many challenges which you currently face. I offer members of the Bar Council, and every member of the Bar, my very best wishes for the future.”

In addition, we plan to recruit two more barristers to join the board in the coming months. This is a result of our Barrister Member Elizabeth Prochaska leaving shortly and our Barrister Member Adam Solomon QC due to come to the end of his term.

In January we announced the appointment of Emir Feisal as a new lay Board member.

Emir is a Chartered Accountant and a specialist in transformational change. The majority of his career was spent at the Sunday Times as Associate Managing Editor. He is a Commissioner for the Judicial Appointments Commission, which selects candidates for judicial office in courts and tribunals. He is at present also a Board member and Audit Chair of the Serious Fraud Office, the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency, the Pensions Ombudsman, the Honours Committee, and he is a trustee of the Henry Smith Charity. He is involved in a number of initiatives in the diversity and inclusion arena. He has held non-executive board member positions with Lambeth Clinical Commission group, London Metropolitan University, and the Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service, amongst others.

We have appointed a new member to the Advisory Pool of Experts (APEX).

APEX is a pool of external advisors who can be called upon to provide expertise to assist us in performing its regulatory functions. We use APEX for advice and support, helping the organisation to develop policy and make regulatory decisions. APEX is made up of a diverse group of people, from a wide range of backgrounds, who are experts in their respective fields.

The new appointee to our Advisory Pool of Experts is Laura Simons who is a strategic communications consultant with particular expertise in the field of consumer affairs.  Laura joins our existing consumer experts, Stewart Horne and Harriet Gamper, and her appointment reflects the BSB’s continuing efforts to increase consumer engagement in the work of the regulator.

We engage Members of APEX on a case-by-case basis and enter into a paid consultancy agreement for services with the BSB for up to ten days’ work per year.

In December 2021 we welcomed  the announcement by the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service (BTAS) that new Sanctions Guidance would come into force on 1 January 2022. We welcomed the authority the new Sanctions Guidance gives to Disciplinary Tribunals to impose tougher sanctions in cases involving a wide range of professional misconduct,  particularly in the case of sexual harassment which we hope will send a clear message that such conduct is completely unacceptable.

The Guidance, which is used by Disciplinary Tribunals and by our Independent Decision-Making Body in deciding what sanctions to impose in cases of proven professional misconduct by barristers in England and Wales, was the subject of review and consultation by BTAS during 2021.

The revised Guidance was developed by a Working Group led by the Chair of the Tribunals, HHJ Jonathan Carroll and including the Registrar of BTAS, lay and barrister members of the BTAS Disciplinary Tribunal panel, our Director of Legal and Enforcement and our Head of Investigations and Enforcement.

The new Guidance will introduce revised sanction ranges for Tribunals to impose across different types of misconduct. The revisions reflect views received during the consultations from the profession and from those representing the public in what has been a wide-ranging review.

In September 2021 we published our latest annual Regulatory Decision-making Report.

This is the second Regulatory Decision-Making report that we have published since we reformed the way regulatory decisions are taken in October 2019. It covers the period April 2020 to March 2021. The report reflects the first full year of data following changes to our approach to regulatory decision-making.

Overall, we have seen a substantial increase in both the number of reports and the number of applications for exemptions and waivers received. This increase coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and has had a significant impact on performance against key performance indicators. Nonetheless, we have increased proactive supervision and support of the profession in key areas of pupillage and bullying and harassment.

The key statistical findings of the report are as follows:

• The number of enquiries and reports – a term that means any incoming information we receive, including what were formerly known as “complaints” – was 3,303 in 2020-21, which is a substantial increase of 54 percent compared with 2019-20 (2,150). The number of actual reports received about barristers’ conduct in 2020-21 was 1,887. This represents a 29% increase on the previous year;
• The number of barristers disbarred in 2020-2021 decreased to four, compared to ten in 2019-20, four in 2018-19, and five in 2017-18;
• Nine barristers were suspended in 2020-21, compared to fifteen in 2019-20, four in 2018-19 and nine in 2017-18;
• During 2020-21 we dealt with a total of 1,140 applications for authorisations, exemptions and waivers;
• Waivers were issued encouraging those offering pupillage to allow pupils to start their pupillage pending the results of their BPTC exams, which enabled 95 people to progress to pupillage;
• We engaged extensively with those offering vocational training throughout the period so that computer based assessment as well as traditional pen and paper exam opportunities were offered enabling Bar students to complete their vocational training;  
• The effect of the pandemic on pupillages was carefully researched and monitored.

Around 350 Regulatory Returns were issued to chambers, BSB entities and sole practitioners. These questionnaires are designed to enable the BSB to assess risk across the Bar and the levels of compliance with our rules and include questions about processes and controls in key areas of practice, and on specific priorities such as dealing with allegations of harassment and assessing the impact of the pandemic.

The full Regulatory Decision-making Report 2020-21 is available on our website.  A statistical report for the same period is also available on our website.

The Independent Decision-making Body, which takes regulatory decisions on behalf of the BSB that require independent input, also published its first annual report today. You can read about that report on our website.

In December 2021, we appointed Harriet Gamper to represent Consumer Affairs on our Advisory Pool of Experts (APEX).

Harriet is a public policy professional, specialising in consumer and competition policy in regulated markets, with particular focus on vulnerable consumer groups. She is currently a Principal in the Civil Aviation Authority’s Consumers and Markets Group. She holds a Masters in Law and Economics and has contributed to a number of academic publications. Previous roles include work on consumer credit at the Office of Fair Trading and consumer policy and compliance at the Office of Rail and Road, as well as for the Legal Services Board. “Consumer Theories of Harm”, of which she is joint author, was published by Hart in 2019.

APEX is a pool of external advisors who can be called upon to provide expertise to assist us in performing its regulatory functions. We use APEX for advice and support, helping the organisation to develop policy and make regulatory decisions. APEX is made up of a diverse group of people, from a wide range of backgrounds, who are experts in their respective fields.

A review by the BSB has shown that most barristers’ practices are now complying with the rules, which came into force in July 2019, but those who are falling short must now become compliant or be subject to enforcement action.

The Bar transparency rules are designed to improve the information available to the public before they engage the services of a barrister and to help them find the information they need to make informed decisions about barristers’ services. The rules require all self-employed barristers, chambers and BSB-regulated entities to publish specified information about their services, including which types of legal service they provide, their most commonly used pricing models (such as fixed fee or hourly rate) and details of their clients' rights of redress. Public Access barristers providing certain types of services are also required to publish additional price and service information.

The General Council of the Bar has published its 2022/23 Practising Certificate Fees (PCF) and Budget for consultation. The GCB budget covers the funding of the Bar Council, the Bar Standards Board, our shared pension liabilities and the levies which are paid to the Legal Services Board and the Office for Legal Complaints. The consultation document includes a separate statement explaining the budget proposed by the Bar Standards Board for 2022/23.

You can read the consultation on the Bar Council website.

The General Council of the Bar  welcomes views from the profession on the planned budget for 2022/23 and the proposal for some increases to certain PCF bands. Please send your responses to: [email protected]

The consultation will close on 14 January 2022 at 5:00pm.

In August we published research on consumers’ expectations and experience of working with barristers. As an evidence-based regulator acting to protect and promote the interests of consumers, this new research helps us to gain an up-to-date understanding of what consumers expect from barristers and the findings here will inform the regulator’s work in many areas.

The research was undertaken by IRN research, an independent research agency. It involved in-depth interviews with 50 consumers who had used the services of a barrister in the previous two years (therefore referred to as clients of barristers), followed by focus group discussions involving 12 participants with the aim of exploring issues raised in the interviews in more detail.

The research sample focused on both clients who had been referred to their barristers by a solicitor, and Public Access clients who chose their barristers directly. Additionally, it included five in-depth interviews with consumer support organisations to provide additional insight into consumer needs and experiences within the legal system.

The research also includes views of clients in vulnerable circumstances and considered the impact of the health emergency on the expectations clients have of barristers providing services remotely.

The key findings from the research show that:

• Very few clients are completely confident that they can deal with a legal matter when it first occurs. For most, it is a completely new experience, often stressful and with an uncertain outcome.
• Many clients who are referred by a solicitor to their barrister are referred to just one barrister and have little or no involvement in this decision. While most clients feel that the referral to just one barrister did not impact on the usefulness of the advice given, the research indicated that there are opportunities to involve clients more in this early decision to select a barrister.
• At the start of their engagement with a barrister, most clients have little understanding of a barristers’ duties or how the relationship will work. The research suggests that most barristers are diligent in reassuring a client at an early stage, explaining how the legal process will work and working in the best interests of the client.
• COVID-19 has led to some hearings being held virtually and these were a good experience for most participants. Reasons included that there was no need for travel or childcare logistics, and the hearing itself was less formal and less intimidating for participants especially in contentious situations.
• Most clients were satisfied with the way their barrister dealt with the legal process. Key indicators of good service identified by clients included: professionalism; approachability; friendliness and empathy; experience and knowledge; and accessibility. However, the research also indicated that stress of the legal process itself can reduce dissatisfied clients’ motivation and willingness to complain – even if they were aware of where to direct their complaint.
• Many clients are unlikely to dwell too much on regulation and complaints procedures when they are starting a legal matter. When interviewees were asked what they understood regulation to involve, most associated regulation with a certain level of professional conduct and standards, plus the holding of appropriate legal qualifications.

The Legal Services Consumer Panel (LSCP) and Legal Services Board (LSB) regularly undertake research with legal consumers, including regular large-scale surveys in the LSCP Tracker Survey and the LSB Legal Needs Survey. This research complements this work by focussing solely on the Bar.

A summary of the research findings can be found on our website.

The full research can be found on our website.

In July we wrote to a number of consumer expert groups inviting them to join a new pool to represent consumers. As the regulator of barristers in England and Wales we are keen to ensure that all our stakeholders are properly consulted as we develop our strategies and policies for delivering our statutory objectives.

To help us to ensure that our stakeholder engagement involves a wide range of  consumer representatives, our Board decided to establish a select pool of consumer expert groups. Membership of our pool involves no obligations but will ensure that members are always consulted by us directly when we think that an issue that is relevant to them is being debated. Most immediately and importantly it means they will also be consulted about our next three-year strategy which we will be deciding over the next six months. To express an interest in joining our pool, please email us at [email protected].

We hope those invited will agree to join our consumer pool so that we can keep them in touch with our work and that they can ensure that their organisation’s voice is heard.

In July we welcomed the response published by the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service (BTAS) following its first consultation regarding the review of the Sanctions Guidance. Find out more about sanctions on our website.

We welcome the publication on 9 September by BTAS of a second consultation document on changes to the Sanctions Guidance used by Disciplinary Tribunals in deciding what sanctions to impose in cases of proven professional misconduct by barristers in England and Wales.

The consultation seeks views on an amended draft of the full revised Sanctions Guidance.

The sanctions imposed in cases of proven professional misconduct are an important aspect of the way in which the public and consumers of legal services are protected, and high standards are promoted. It is therefore vital that the final Guidance commands the support of both the public and the profession.

We urge everyone with an interest in this topic to respond to the BTAS consultation by the deadline of 21 October.

The second and final BTAS consultation document can be found at: https://www.tbtas.org.uk/policies-guidance-and-publications/guidance/btas-sanctions-guidance-consultation-2021/

Do you have views on the Bar Course Aptitude Test (BCAT)? In a consultation paper published on 2 September, we outline three possible options for the future of the BCAT as a prerequisite for students enrolling on a Bar training course.

Alongside the consultation paper, we have also published an evaluation of the performance of the BCAT over time which has prompted us to review whether the BCAT continues to be necessary.  

The BCAT was introduced in 2013 as the number of students failing the vocational component of the Bar training was high; too many students who had little prospect of successfully completing a Bar training course were being enrolled. This was also having a detrimental impact on the learning experience of their peers and the ability of lecturers to teach the course. The BCAT was introduced to mitigate this risk by “filtering” for aptitude and preventing students who did not have the ability to succeed from enrolling on a Bar training course. Our evaluation of the BCAT suggests, however, that it is not operating as an effective filter. We are also aware that Bar training providers have introduced more effective entry checks since the BCAT was launched.

The three options which Bar students and other interested stakeholders are asked to consider in this consultation are:

• Option 1: Retain the BCAT in its current form as a prerequisite for all students enrolling on a Bar training course;
• Option 2: Retain BCAT as a prerequisite for all students enrolling on a Bar training course but amend it so that it is a more effective filter; and
• Option 3: Withdraw the BCAT as a prerequisite for students enrolling on a Bar training course.

The consultation asks respondents to consider the equality impacts of each option on those with different protected characteristics and/or those from disadvantaged or underrepresented groups, or those who are neuro divergent. It also asks respondents to consider whether there are any further options which have not been considered as part of this consultation. The views received in response to this consultation will help the regulator to decide the future of the BCAT.

Please respond to this consultation by emailing [email protected] by the closing date of 31 October 2021. A response form is available on our website.

We expect to announce its decision about the future of BCAT after this consultation has closed and the responses have been analysed. This means a decision is likely to be made around February/March 2022. Until a final decision has been made on the BCAT and a timeline set out for the implementation of that decision, it remains a requirement for entry onto a Bar training course. We will communicate our decision clearly to everyone concerned and provide clear instructions for those intending to apply for a Bar training course from 2022.

The evaluation of the performance of the BCAT over time can be found on our website and the report appendices are available on our website.

In July we published our latest annual report summarising our activities during the 2020-21 business year.

During the period covered in this Report, the effects of the pandemic were felt in many aspects of our work. The Annual Report describes what we did in response to the national measures taken to respond to the health emergency including analysing the risks to the Regulatory Objectives, maintaining Bar training and enabling Bar students to progress their careers, and ensuring that we maintained our services and cared for the well-being of its people.

Despite the effects of the pandemic, progress was made in a number of important areas. These included:

• reinvigorating efforts with the profession to promote equality and diversity at the Bar including the publication of an Anti-Racist Statement requiring action from all barristers’ practices;
• continuing work to tackle bullying, discrimination and harassment at the Bar; and
• issuing a Regulatory Return questionnaire to assess risk within barristers’ practices and to understand better the levels of compliance with our rules.

The report also describes the day-to-day tasks undertaken by us when regulating barristers and specialised legal businesses in England and Wales in the public interest. This work includes overseeing the education and training requirements for becoming a barrister, monitoring the standards of conduct of barristers, and assuring the public that everyone it authorises to practise is competent to do so. To demonstrate these aspects of our work, the report shows that:

• as of 31 March 2021, there were 17,123 registered barristers in England and Wales as well as 138 specialised legal services businesses regulated by us;
• during 2020-21, 2,373 applications for waivers and exemptions from our rules were processed – a significant increase compared with the previous year; and
• during 2020-21, 20 barristers had a disciplinary finding against them of whom nine were suspended and four were disbarred.

Further information about the regulator’s authorisations and enforcement work during the year will be made available in a separate report on its regulatory decision-making to be published in the autumn.

Read the full BSB Annual Report 2020-21 online.

We also published a separate document alongside its Annual Report, the Cost Transparency Metrics for 2020-21 which seeks to summarise and explain our costs.

In July we published a new statistical analysis of the outcomes of complaints made about barristers in England and Wales, and the likelihood of barristers being subject to a complaint, between January 2015 and October 2019. The way in which reports about barristers’ conduct are dealt with by us changed significantly in October 2019, so an equivalent analysis will be undertaken again later this year to understand the effect of the new system after two years of its operation.

The aims of this research were to investigate the relationship between barrister characteristics – particularly gender and ethnicity – and the outcomes of complaints against barristers, and the likelihood of practising barristers being subject to a complaint during this period.

During the period under analysis, we divided complaints into two categories “internal complaints” (complaints raised by us based on information received from a wide variety of sources, including self-reports of potential professional misconduct; referrals from other BSB departments; referrals from other regulators; judicial criticisms; and public/media coverage of barristers’ behaviour) and “external complaints” (complaints raised by members of the public, legal professionals or other external sources, who wished to make a formal complaint about a barrister). 

The key findings from this analysis include:

• Male barristers subject to a complaint were found to be around 2.1 times more likely to have their case referred for disciplinary action compared with female barristers subject to a complaint;
• Male barristers were also found to be around 1.3 times more likely than female barristers to be subject to an “internal complaint”;
• There was not a statistically significant relationship between gender and whether cases were closed without investigation, or whether a barrister was subject to an “external complaint”. However, gender was close to being significant when looking at whether cases were closed without investigation, suggesting that there may be some association between being male and a lesser likelihood of a complaint being closed without investigation;
• Compared to White barristers, barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds were found to be around 1.7 times more likely to be subject to an “internal complaint” compared with White barristers;
• There was not a statistically significant relationship between ethnicity and whether cases were closed without investigation or referred to disciplinary action, or whether a barrister was subject to an “external complaint”. However, ethnicity was close to statistical significance when looking at whether cases were referred to disciplinary action, suggesting there may be some association between being from a minority ethnic background and a greater likelihood of a complaint being referred for disciplinary action; and
• Analysis of year-on-year trends of complaint outcomes and ethnicity suggests that while there were a greater proportion of complaints referred for disciplinary action for barristers from minority ethnic backgrounds in comparison to White barristers prior to 2017, from 2017 onwards there is no clear trend. This suggests that the association between ethnicity and the likelihood of an “internal complaint” being referred for disciplinary action may have become weaker from 2017 onwards.

We published similar research in 2016.

A summary of the research findings can be found on our website.

The full research findings can be found on our website. The Appendices can also be found on our website. 

In July we published an action plan to improve our governance. The plan also addresses recommendations made today by the Legal Services Board (LSB) in its review of our governance.

The LSB was established by the 2007 Legal Services Act and monitors the regulatory performance of all the legal service regulators. The LSB report followed an assessment by the LSB, based on an analysis focusing mainly around three issues considered by our Board in the period between April 2018 and March 2020, that some improvements were needed to the way in which we are governed.

We regularly reviews our own performance in order to improve our governance and agree with the LSB that we could be more explicit in our focus on our statutory objectives, that we should do more to encourage consumers to engage with our work and that we should always have sufficient information to make regulatory decisions. Our action plan and our own review of governance, which is currently ongoing, will ensure that the LSB’s findings are fully taken into account as we continue to improve and develop our governance.

The Bar Standards Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority and CILEx Regulation have published new guidance for solicitors, barristers and CILEx Advocates working in the Coroners’ Courts. This includes:

• A set of competences which spell out the standards expected of lawyers by the regulators and the public
• Guidance and other resources to help make sure that the standards are met.

The new guidelines have been introduced in response to concerns about the standards of practice among some lawyers in the Coroner’s Court and in particular, issues about the adversarial approach adopted by some lawyers, and reports from the charity INQUEST on the experience of bereaved families in Coroner’s Court cases.

The competences complement the existing wider professional competency statements from regulators and set targeted expectations for lawyers working in the Coroner’s Court. The competences cover:

• Law and procedure
• Dealing with vulnerability
• Communication and engagement
• Raising awareness of key organisations

The Chief Coroner for England and Wales, HHJ Teague QC, has said: “It is important that the competencies for lawyers practising in inquests are met. They are important for effective advocacy and reflect the particular and unique challenges lawyers face in inquests. Also, since they helped develop them, coroners will be vigilant in ensuring those before them are meeting the expected standards.”

Coroners will be encouraged to address practice that falls short of these competences either during the hearing itself or through raising their concerns with the relevant regulator.

In developing these resources, we have worked closely with the Chief and Deputy Chief Coroners, practitioners, the Ministry of Justice, and bereaved families. We will also continue to work with them to evaluate the impact of the new guidelines and ensure that they are addressing the concerns identified.

In March 2021 we published our annual Business Plan for 2021-22 in which we set out our main priorities for the year.

The Plan – which includes details of our budget for the year ahead – reflects the significant ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic on both the profession and our own work.

The Business Plan outlines how, where necessary, we will temporarily put on hold some of our longer-term policy development projects in order to prioritise our core regulatory work and our analysis of the impact of the health emergency. This core work involves overseeing the education and training requirements for becoming a barrister, monitoring the standards of conduct of barristers and compliance with the rules in our Handbook, including the new transparency rules, and ensuring that everyone we authorise to practise is competent to do so. 

The policy development which remains important during 2021-22 and which is explained in more detail in the Plan reflects our analysis of risk to the regulatory objectives. Consistent with those risks, the plan targets:

• continuing work to raise standards at the Bar;

• completing the final implementation of Bar training reforms;
• working with the Bar Tribunals Adjudication Service to review their Sanctions Guidance;  
• promoting equality and access to justice including tackling bullying, discrimination and harassment at the Bar; and
• ensuring the future supply of pupillage places, and hence of barristers, following a big reduction in response to the health emergency in 2020.

It is common across professions for there to be defined skills and competences (or ‘professional standards’) that members of that profession are expected to meet. Few would argue against the suggestion that our primary role is to set the standards that we expect of barristers and to ensure that those entering the profession meet those standards and continue to do so throughout their careers.

In fulfilling this role, we can give assurance to members of the public that they have access to barristers who are competent to practise.

The question of maintaining and raising standards at the Bar is important and will therefore be one of our priorities for the coming year and we have recently launched a new programme of work about this which we have called our “Assuring Competence” programme.

It is important to acknowledge that there is no evidence of widescale concerns, and standards of practice at the Bar are generally high. Our strategy is therefore focussed on ensuring that those high standards are maintained, with intervention limited to where there is evidence of a problem.

The programme will include implementing targeted regulation to improve standards of advocacy in Coroners’ Courts, looking at how we can improve flows of evidence from the judiciary and others about areas of concern, and how we can improve feedback to individual barristers from a range of stakeholders to inform their self-reflection and continuing professional development.

We will be engaging with consumers and consumer organisations on these issues in the coming weeks and months and are particularly interested to understand what information or assurances you believe that members of the public need in order to have confidence that their barristers meet expected levels of professional standards. Do look out for opportunities to contribute.

We are very keen to do more to increase our consumer engagement and to make sure we continue to represent the views of those who rely on the services provided by barristers in our work to regulate the Bar in England and Wales. This is particularly important given that we always seek to act, first and foremost, in the public interest.  

With this in mind, we have recently decided to increase the number of consumer experts on our Advisory Pool of Experts, and to establish a wide and flexible pool of consumer bodies from which subgroups could then be chosen to advise on specific issues.

If your organisation would be interested in joining our pool of consumer bodies or you, as an individual, would be interested in becoming a member of our Advisory Pool of Experts do please let us know. APEX is a pool of external advisors who can be called upon to provide expertise to assist us in performing our regulatory functions. We use APEX for advice and support, helping the organisation to develop policy and make regulatory decisions. APEX is made up of a diverse group of people, from a wide range of backgrounds, who are experts in their respective fields.

Last year, we appointed three new members to our Advisory Pool of Experts (APEX), including Stewart Horne who is an expert on Consumer Affairs.

Members of APEX will be engaged by us on a case-by-case basis and enter into a paid consultancy agreement for services with us for up to ten days’ work per year.

In April, we welcomed the publication by the Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service (BTAS) of a first consultation document proposing revisions to parts of the Sanctions Guidance which is used by Disciplinary Tribunals in deciding what sanctions to impose in cases of proven professional misconduct by barristers. The consultation document has been prepared by a Working Group made up of representatives of BTAS, lay and barrister members of the BTAS Disciplinary Tribunal panel and the BSB.

BTAS is responsible for the appointment, operation, and decisions (including sentencing) of disciplinary tribunal panels under a Services Agreement between the BSB and the Council of the Inns of Court. The BSB is responsible for bringing charges of professional misconduct against barristers, which BTAS tribunals then adjudicate. The sanctions imposed are a matter for the tribunal having regard to BTAS Sanctions Guidance which is drawn up in collaboration between BTAS and the BSB

We very much hope that all those with an interest in the sanctions which barristers face for professional misconduct will take part in this consultation. We are of course aware that there has been recent criticism of the sanctions imposed in cases of sexual misconduct but this review also covers a wider range of professional misconduct. It includes proposals to increase the indicative sanctions for some types of misconduct, including misconduct of a sexual nature. It is very important that the final Guidance commands the support of both the public and the profession.

Details of the Review, which closes on 14 June 2021, can be found on the BTAS website.

In November 2020, we published an anti-racist statement which aims to reduce race inequality at the Bar of England and Wales.

The statement, which is available to download from this webpage, was developed in collaboration with barristers and BSB members of the regulator’s Race Equality Taskforce. It has been produced in line with the objectives in our Equality and Diversity Strategy for 2020-22 where race equality is a key focus. Find out more on our website.

In January, we published our annual report on Diversity at the Bar. The report shows that the profession became increasingly diverse in 2020 and that a greater proportion of barristers disclosed their demographic data.

While diversity of the profession continues to improve, there is still more that needs to be done so that the Bar reflects the society it serves.

For the first time, the report uses the term ‘minority ethnic groups’ rather than ‘BAME’ and provides more disaggregated data about ethnicity at the Bar in order to reflect the varied experiences of barristers from different minority ethnic groups.

Some of the key findings include:

• At 60.9 per cent, men still outnumber women at 38.2 per cent of the practising Bar. The percentage of women at the Bar overall increased by 0.2 percentage points during the last year (or 0.4%).
• The percentage of practising barristers from minority ethnic groups overall increased by 0.5 percentage points (or 3.7%) to 14.1 per cent, slightly exceeding the estimate of 13.3 per cent of the working age population in England and Wales.

Different minority ethnic groups have varied levels of representation at the Bar.  We have a statutory responsibility to monitor and promote equality and diversity both as an employer and as the regulator of barristers in England and Wales.

At the BSB, one of our commitments is to focus on the use of technology in the profession. We understand the important role innovation and technology could play in improving access to justice.  We would like the profession to adapt and take advantage of the opportunities this brings and are keen to play our part in encouraging the use of technology where it can bring benefits. Being a risk-based regulator, it is important that we understand the risks and opportunities that can arise from technological innovation and, where necessary, act quickly to mitigate any risks.

This short blog highlights some of the ways in which we are seeking to gain insight into the use of technology, helping us to understand how new ideas can be translated into reality, and ensuring that regulation adapts to facilitate the opportunities, while managing the risks.

Through our engagement with LawtechUK: This is a Government backed initiative aimed at supporting digital transformation of the UK legal sector. As part of this initiative, the BSB is working alongside other legal services regulators to provide regulatory support to those innovators who were successful in the pilot phase of this initiative. A list of the projects and more on this initiative can be found here. We are excited to be working on this initiative and look forward to seeing what opportunities this could bring to improve access to justice, while at the same time considering what they might mean for the Bar and for the BSB itself. 

Flexibility in applications of rules: One of the ways we can facilitate innovation, is through keeping our rules flexible. As we review our Code of Conduct, we aim to remove unnecessary prescription to facilitate different ways of thinking to deliver the right outcomes for the consumer and public interest. If our current rules are acting as a block to innovation or the use of technology, we can consider granting a waiver. More on waivers and how you could apply for one can be found here.

Ongoing engagement with barristers’ practices and further research: last year we sent out a request to barristers’ chambers asking them to answer a range of questions about their practice. Our Regulatory Return, as this is known, included questions relating to the current and future use of technology, as well as the perceived risks and barriers to the take up of technology. We are really looking forward to hearing what is happening in Chambers and to consider where we might be able to do more to enable innovation and better use of technology.

If you wish to discuss our work on technology and innovation, please contact [email protected]

In April 2021 we published our response to our oversight regulator the LSB’s quality indicators in the legal services market discussion paper.

We are committed to increasing transparency for consumers to provide them with the information, knowledge and tools they need to make effective choices in relation to legal services providers. This is key to ensuring that the legal services market functions well for consumers and supports our regulatory objectives of protecting and promoting the public interest, improving access to justice, protecting and promoting the interests of consumers and promoting competition in the provision of services.

As a result of the Competition and Markets Authority’s review of the legal services market in 2016, we have implemented a number of changes to our regulatory arrangements to increase the availability of information for consumers. This has included setting mandatory transparency rules for all self-employed barristers, chambers and BSB entities, setting additional transparency rules for those undertaking Public Access work and publishing additional best practice on transparency for all (going beyond the mandatory rules). We have also published guidance encouraging barristers to follow good practice when receiving feedback, and a guide for the public on using and leaving feedback about barristers.

We welcome this discussion paper and look forward to engaging further on the topic. Our Business Plan for 2021-22 commits us to collaborating with other legal regulators to understand the possible benefits of quality indicators and pilot new approaches, and to developing a regulatory approach to enabling barristers to better use consumers’ feedback about their services and to improve the indicators available to those seeking to engage the Bar. We are also a member of the regulators’ quality indicators pilot working group and are planning to conduct a pilot in employment law practice. As an evidence-based regulator, it is important for us to collect information to inform proportionate regulatory interventions. In our research programme for 2021-22, we will gather evidence through a) evaluating the impact of the new transparency rules on consumers and b) independent qualitative research to understand the expectations consumers have of barristers (including what quality indicators consumers find useful). Read our full response on our website.

Since the health emergency began earlier this year, we have been extremely conscious of its impact on the public served by the profession we regulate, as well as barristers themselves. The challenges posed by the pandemic for the legal services market and the wider justice system are complex. As the regulator of the Bar, there are three immediate concerns that we have acted to address. 1. Ensuring that there continues to be an adequate supply of practising barristers available to serve the public, in particular in areas like Criminal and Family Law that have been affected by court closures and significant financial pressures. As a consequence, we have taken steps to make renewing practising certificates - which all practising barristers must hold - easier for those with cash flow issues, and we shall work closely with the profession to alleviate pressures where possible.  2. Maintaining a diverse pipeline of talent into the profession from whom consumers can benefit . We have been particularly concerned about the impact of the pandemic on the availability of pupillages (the period of work-based learning that barristers are required to complete in order to be authorised to practise). Our recently published research shows that there is likely to be some pressure on the availability of pupillages over the next two years, and we are committed to doing all we can to support and facilitate the provision of these vital training opportunities. We shall also continue to closely monitor the diversity of the profession and  its new entrants, especially in publicly funded areas of practice in which women and BAME barristers are statistically more common. 3. Allowing students to progress onto their careers so that they can become practising barristers available to the public. We have worked hard in this area to make sure that centralised examinations for which we are responsible as part of Bar training go ahead. The online examinations that we held in August regrettably did not work for all students due to technical issues, so we are making alternative arrangements, but the majority of students have been able to complete their exams successfully in order to be in a position to progress to the next stage of their training to become barristers. We will of course continue to monitor the effects of the health emergency on the Bar and the services it provides to the public and take action where we can.

We have recently appeared on two episodes of Get Legally Speaking, an exciting new legal consumer podcast. To find out more about the BSB and our work on behalf of legal consumers, please listen to: 'The Bar Standards Board - What is it? What Do They Do?'; and  'Access to Justice & the Legal Profession During the Crisis'. .

In April, we published our new Equality and Diversity Strategy for 2020-2022. It follows our Diversity at the Bar Report in January 2020, which showed that the diversity of the profession was slowly improving but that further progress is needed.

We have developed equality objectives and a corresponding action plan to increase diversity at the Bar so that it better reflects the society it serves and to improve access to justice.

While we have a statutory regulatory objective to "encourage an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession" (Legal Services Act 2007), we also believe that a profession which is representative of society will be more effective in meeting the diverse needs of clients. There is of course a moral case for diversity too - it is unfair 

The strategy includes objectives to address discrimination and harassment, and to review the role of regulation in enhancing access to justice and wellbeing at the Bar.

The Equality and Diversity Strategy will be implemented over a period of two years. In taking forward the strategy, we will be sensitive to the demands made on the profession by the health emergency, while also ensuring that momentum on this hugely important agenda is maintained.

You can read more about our approach to Equality and Diversity on our website.

In July, we published our Annual Report for 2019-20, which summarised our achievements over the year. The report recorded reforms that aimed to benefit consumers and the public, including:

•    helping consumers better understand the prices and services of barristers by embedding compliance with the new Bar transparency rules;
•    furthering the public's understanding of the Bar and the wider justice system by taking forward a new strategy on Public Legal Education, working closely with organisations that have expertise in helping those in legal need;
•    increasing the efficiency of our regulatory decision-making by streamlining and improving the way that we assess and handle reports from the public about those whom we regulate;
•    taking steps to make the Bar better reflect the society it serves, including carrying out a review of our Equality Rules, publishing a new Equality and Diversity Strategy, and continuing to take action to tackle bullying and harassment at the Bar; and
•    ensuring that the best and brightest can pursue a career at the Bar in order to serve the public by implementing new Bar Qualification Rules, which make training for the Bar more affordable, accessible and flexible while sustaining high standards.

In addition, the Annual Report contained statistics relating to our enforcement action in response to alleged breaches of the BSB Handbook. It showed that during 2019-20, 32 barristers had a disciplinary finding against them of whom 15 were suspended and 10 were disbarred.  

Alongside the report, we also published Cost Transparency Metrics for 2019-20, which seek to summarise and explain our costs.

Commenting on the report, BSB Director-General, Mark Neale, said: "“I joined the Bar Standards Board in February 2020 so much of this report describes our work under my excellent predecessor, Dr Vanessa Davies. We made real progress during 2019-20 and achieved success in many key areas of our regulation, including introducing a new system by which new barristers train and qualify, and new transparency rules for the Bar. Our focus now is to ensure that our work helps the profession to recover from the effects of the health emergency for the benefit of everyone who relies on the Bar.”

You can read our Annual Read for 2019-20 on our website.

Consumers need a good understanding of the service they will receive from barristers and the price they will pay. That's why we introduced the transparency rules last year, and in July we published a review of compliance with those rules.

It found that we were already seeing good practice, with 75% of chambers being fully or partially compliant. However, there is room for improvement. We found that the most common themes of non-compliance included failure to provide:

• information about the factors which might influence the timescales of a case;
• a link to the decision data page on the Legal Ombudsman’s website; and
• a link to our Barristers’ Register.
We now expect any chambers or entities not in full compliance to achieve it without delay. This includes those supplying services to consumers directly (known as 'Public Access'), who are subject to additional transparency requirements.

We shall be undertaking follow-up work to check on compliance and will take supervisory/enforcement action where we find continuing failures to meet the requirements, to guarantee that consumers can be assured that they will have the information they need before engaging the services of a barrister.

For more information about the transparency rules, visit our website.
 

In September, we issued the Regulatory Return questionnaire to 350 chambers and other organisations providing legal services. 

This exercise, last undertaken in 2015-16, enables us to assess risks across the Bar and levels of compliance with our rules. It helps us target regulatory supervision where it is most needed, so that we can act proportionately and effectively to protect the public.

If you want to know more about the Regulatory Return, visit our website.

In September, we published a new edition of the BSB Handbook, which contains rules about how barristers must behave. As part of the new edition of the Handbook, we have updated guidance for barristers on Core Duty 9 ("You must be open and cooperative with your regulators"), making clear that this includes all relevant regulators and ombudsman schemes. Our hope is that this will further strengthen protections for consumers, who - if they have a concern - might first seek redress from an organisation besides the BSB, such as the Legal Ombudsman. If you are interested in learning more about the BSB Handbook, please visit our website.

In January 2020, the BSB set out our new strategy for Public Legal Education (PLE).

The new strategy aims to make it easier for consumers to navigate the complex market for legal services, with a focus on those with poor legal knowledge who might have to represent themselves. To reach and provide meaningful assistance to this group, we are establishing:

a series of corporate partnerships with organisations who have the most expertise in reaching those with low levels of legal knowledge and who might have to represent themselves; and we are increasing investment in our website to provide consumers with clear, practical and high-quality information.
Our first partnership is with Law for Life, a leading charity dedicated to ensuring that people have the knowledge, confidence and skills needed to secure access to justice. Law for Life runs the website, advice now, which is visited 1.2 million times a year, with 76% of its users identifying as actual or potential Litigants in Persons (LiPs). We will support Law for Life to deliver a number of projects by April 2020, including:

producing a resource, the working title for which is "When the other side has a barrister - a guide for Litigants in Person". It will explain what LiPs should expect from a barrister representing the other side, and will review the basic skills they can employ in order to put their own case as well as they can.plugging the gap in information available to Litigants in Person having to take a case about legal issues such as debt, consumer problems, breach of contract and personal injury by producing a series of resources in accessible language that explain how the legal process works and how to explore alternatives to going to court. This series will include: Things You Need Know Before You Sue; Hearings; Interim Applications (How to Ask a Civil Court to Do Something); Legal Costs and Who Pays Them; Evidence Needed to Sue Someone; and How to Settle a Court Claim.producing a route map to suing in the civil court, giving LiPs an overall picture of what is involved in a typical county court case, using a case study.developing a tailored workshop series for women-led organisations supporting highly vulnerable women ex-offenders or women at risk of offending to ensure they are better able to access housing and welfare entitlements.

In addition, we will continue to invest in our website, making clear, practical and high-quality content accessible to consumers. We will create a new section on the BSB website explaining how to report a barrister representing the other side, reinforcing consumers' understanding about what the barrister's role is and what issues do and do not merit a report to the regulator. On our website, the public can already find:

general information about barristers - what they do and how they differ from other lawyers;guidance on finding and using a barrister, explaining when you might need one, how to find and choose one, how to instruct them, and what you can expect;advice on how to search a barrister's record so you can discover whether they have been the subject of disciplinary findings;an explanation of how you can report a concern about a barrister, including when you should report someone to the BSB and when you should report them to the Legal Ombudsman; anda prominent link to Legal Choices, the consumer-facing website which provides independent information about legal issues and lawyers.

There will be more partnerships to come in the next financial year, which will continue to focus on providing information to the public, empowering them to make more informed choices about legal services and their interaction with the justice system in England and Wales.

 

On 15 October 2019, reforms to the way we deal with information from the public took effect. The main change is that all incoming queries and information will be assessed centrally. This single point of initial contact will make sending information to the BSB ( https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/ask-us-a-question-or-report-a-concern-landing.html ) easier for members of the public.
It will remain the case that members of the public can send information to the BSB about a barrister who has not represented them.
However, if a member of the public wishes to complain about a barrister of whom they are a client, they should go to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO).
Find out more ( https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/resources/press-releases/bsb-modernises-its-regulatory-decision-making-and-launches-new-website.html ) about changes to how we deal with information from the public.

 

Our new rules to improve transparency standards for barristers' clients, which came into force in July 2019, are becoming embedded. Spot checks began in January 2020.
The new rules require barristers' practices to provide consumers with enhanced price and service information. There are also additional rules for providers of Public Access work in which legal services are supplied directly to members of the public rather than via a solicitor.
Find out more ( https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/for-barristers/compliance-with-your-obligations/transparency-rules.html ) about the transparency rules.

 

The BSB launched a new website in October 2019 which makes it easier for consumers and members of the public to access the information they need.

Content for the BSB website, which was used by over 300,000 people last year, was developed with help from Law for Life. The website now provides information for consumers that is more comprehensive and accessible than ever before. It includes advice about how to access legal services, how to find and use a barrister, and how to report a concern to the BSB.

The BSB Handbook, which contains the rules for how barristers must behave and work, is now easier for the public to read and navigate. The website's new Handbook feature makes searching for specific rules quick and simple  - and there's no need to download the whole Handbook to do so.

Finding relevant content on the new and improved BSB website is straightforward. There are dedicated sections for the public, for students, and for barristers and other legal professionals, containing everything they need to know about BSB rules and guidance.

By improving the information available online, consumers will be empowered to make more informed choices when accessing legal services, and members of the public will be better equipped to report any concerns they have about a barrister to the BSB.

 

The BSB's new rules to improve transparency standards for barristers' clients came into force in July. The new rules will significantly improve the information available to the public before engaging the services of a barrister.

Barristers' practices will be required to:

State that they may be contacted by the public to obtain a quotation for legal services;Provide contact details for doing this;State their most commonly used pricing model or hourly rate;State the areas of practice in which they most commonly provide legal services;State and provide a description of their most commonly provided legal services;Provide information about the factors which might influence the timescales of their most commonly provided legal services;Display text to show that the practice and its barristers are “regulated by the Bar Standards Board””;Display information about the practice's complaints procedure, any right to complain to the Legal Ombudsman (LeO), how to complain, and any time limits for making a complaint.

There will also be additional rules for providers of Public Access work, in which legal services are supplied directly to members of the public rather than via a solicitor or another third party. 

The change will be a significant shift, empowering consumers to make more informed choices between providers.

The new rules come after the Competition and Markets Authority’s 2016 recommendations that legal regulators deliver a step change in transparency standards, to help consumers understand the price and service they receive, what redress is available, and the regulatory status of their provider.

Whilst barristers will be required to comply with the new transparency rules, there will be an implementation period until January 2020, after which spot checks will take place.

Read more ( https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases-and-news/latest-edition-of-bsb-handbook-introduces-new-bar-transparency-rules/ )

 

The BSB’s new Strategic Plan 2019-2022, published in March, contains the Bar Standards Board's aims for the next three years:
Delivering risk-based, targeted and effective regulation.Encouraging an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession.Advancing access to justice in a changing market.
The BSB also identified three themes posing the greatest risk to its statutory objectives:
Working cultures and professional environment inhibit an independent, strong, diverse and effective profession.Innovation and disruption in the legal services market of opportunities for the profession and the public.Affordability and lack of legal knowledge threaten access to justice.
Read more ( https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases-and-news/new-bsb-strategic-plan-sets-out-regulatory-priorities/ )

 

The new edition of BSB Handbook, published in April 2019, adopted the civil standard of proof for professional misconduct proceedings to alleged breaches of the Code by barristers occurring after 31 March.
The standard of proof will change from the criminal standard ("beyond reasonable doubt" or "satisfied so as to be sure") to the civil standard ("on the balance of probabilities" or "more likely than not") for conduct that occurred after 31 March. The criminal standard will continue to be applied to alleged professional misconduct that occurred before that date. This change came after a public consultation in 2017 and will bring the Bar's disciplinary arrangements in line with those of other professional regulators.

We are reforming how we handle information we receive from members of the public to make our processes more efficient.  
It will remain the case that members of the public can send information to the BSB about a barrister who has not represented them.
However, if a member of the public wishes to complain about a barrister of whom they are a client,  they should go the Legal Ombudsman (LeO).

Read more ( https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/complaints-and-professional-conduct/making-a-complaint/ )