The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has published its annual report on the diversity of its workforce and Board members. In taking forward its regulatory objectives, which include to encourage an independent, strong, diverse and effective legal profession, the BSB aims to lead by example. The Diversity of BSB Workforce and Board Members report demonstrates the BSB’s commitment to meeting its legal and regulatory equality duties in all aspects of its work.

The data were captured on 1 December 2024, and cover data on BSB staff, as well as data relating to Board members, which are collected and analysed annually. 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 “45-54”, six members were in the “55-64” range, and the remaining Board members were aged 65+.

• Nine members were from a White background. The remaining members were from another ethnic group.

For BSB employees as opposed to Board members, of which there were 124 at the time the data were captured.

The below figures relate only to those who have provided a response.

The key findings of the report are:

• 53 per cent of our workforce was White, compared to 80.8 per cent of the UK working age population. The proportion of our workforce (47%) 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 (estimated at 19.1% of the 16-64 working age population in England and Wales).
• The proportion of our workforce who are female is 70 per cent: This compares to an estimate of 50.8 per cent of the UK working age (16-64) population.

• Five per cent of our workforce declared a disability. This is an increase of two percentage point from 2023.

• 14 per cent of our workforce selected “Bisexual/ Gay or Lesbian/ Another sexuality”, which is an increase of two percentage points since last year. Disclosure for sexual orientation has also increased by around two percentage points compared to December 2023.

The BSB continues to champion inclusion for our people through our strategic commitments as evidenced in our Equality and Diversity Strategy 2022-2025, Anti-Racist Strategy 2024-2027 and Anti-Racism Action Plan. We encourage our people to share diversity data and the BSB is committed to monitoring its staff diversity data on an annual basis. We ensure mandatory EDI and Anti Racism training for our people and mandatory EDI induction training for the Board.

 Commenting on the report, Director General Mark Neale said:

“The BSB is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace. As this report demonstrates, our workforce is significantly more diverse than the working age population in the UK. We will continue to monitor this data each year and to promote initiatives and training which further diversity and ensure that the BSB is an inclusive workplace for people of all backgrounds and views.”

You can read the full Diversity of the BSB Workforce and Board Members 2024 report on our website.