In March 2024, the Bar Standards Board commissioned Ipsos, a leading independent market research agency, to conduct a survey of a representative sample of British adults aged 16-75, along with a booster sample of 200 responses specifically for Wales.

The aim of this survey was to improve our understanding of public awareness and confidence in the Bar and its regulation by the Bar Standards Board and to seek to measure the effectiveness of our efforts to communicate and engage with the public. A total of 2047 responses to the survey were received. The key findings from the survey were as follows:

• 97% of those surveyed had heard of barristers.
• 85% claim to know something about barristers.
• 76% say they don’t know anyone who works or has worked as a barrister or in the legal profession.
• 85% think barristers are regulated.
• 52% of respondents would expect investigating reports and complaints made about the conduct of barristers to be part of the BSB’s role, followed by 50% who expect the BSB to regulate the training of barristers.
• Additionally, 41% said that representing the interests of barristers and their profession in negotiations with the government should be included, while 40% think that promoting equality and diversity within the profession should be a part of the BSB’s role.

The survey also confirmed that the majority (over 70%) of the public have confidence in barristers’ professional skills and integrity. However, confidence in the Bar did vary by geographical region, by ethnicity, and by income.

Overall, these findings are encouraging in that they suggest that the public has a level of understanding that the Bar is regulated in the public interest. However, it is clear that we can do more to raise public awareness and understanding of the regulation of the Bar and of the Bar Standards Board in particular, and in reassuring the public that we are indeed independent of the profession. You can read the full report here.

We now hope to commission a similar survey annually and will publish its results on our website. We hope that this will provide a useful complement to the Legal Services Consumer Panel’s annual tracker survey which looks at those using legal services as a whole but does not focus specifically on the Bar.