Written By Jack J Collins, Editor of AllAboutLaw.co.uk

BSB Diversity Report and Bar Council Reponse

Written By Jack J Collins, Editor of AllAboutLaw.co.uk

The Bar Standards Board released their annual diversity report last week, entitled Diversity at the Bar. Whilst response rates are up for all categories, it has been stated that there are still a number of barristers who are not disclosing their diversity data to the report.

Some of the key findings of the report were as follows:

There has been a significant increase in response rates since 2012 when the BSB began collecting diversity data from individual barristers through the online Barrister Connect portal. When the tracking of data started in 2012, there was only a 5% response rate for disabilities, a 4.7% response rate for sexual orientation, and a 3% reponse rate for Caring Responsibilities for Children (CRC). For CRC, the response rate is still the lowest of any category, but it has increaded tenfold, to 30.8% this year.
Gender representation at the bar still remains an issue. Women currently account for 36.5% (up from 35.9% in 2015) of the practising Bar. However, women account for only 13.7% of QCs, with men making up a huge 86.3%.
It is very possible that disabled Bar practitioners are still grossly underrepresented, although low completion rates make this hard to judge reliably, at 35%. However, only 1.7% of respondents disclosed their disability, which is grossly lower than the nationwide percentage, 19.1%.
As with women, there is a disparity between the total proportion of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) barristers across the whole profession, which is 12.2%; and the amount of BME QCs, which is only 6.4%. The BSB have highlighted this as an issue of progression which they will address this year.
There remains a huge overrepresentation of those who went to fee paying schools at the Bar. Even with more than two-thirds of barristers failing to respond to the question, the percentage of respondents who went to fee paying schools was 10.7%, as opposed to the national average of 7%.

The Bar Council has responded to the report.

Chairman of the Bar, Andrew Langdon QC said: “I am urging all barristers, whatever their backgrounds, to disclose their diversity data when they renew their practising certificates this year.

“This data, published today by the BSB, is what the Bar Council uses to inform all its equality and diversity programmes, and the work it undertakes to improve social mobility in the profession.

“One of the key challenges is to get women to stay in the profession for longer, widening the pool of talented women available so that more can apply for silk and judicial appointment. We also need to increase the number of BAME barristers who become QCs and go to the bench, and to enable more state school students to join the profession. If we succeed, we will have a legal profession and judiciary that reflect the communities they serve.

“As a profession we are becoming more diverse. The Bar Council is driving change through a range of long-running programmes. These include mentoring women and BAME barristers, providing leading equality and diversity advice to chambers, and promoting the Bar to state school students, but none would be possible without the data that underpins our work and guides new initiatives.”

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