Our equality, diversity and inclusion work Annual Report 2023/24

This section provides a brief overview of the work we have done to encourage fair, flexible and accessible pathways into the profession. There is more information in our education and training annual data and our three annual Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) reports (an overview of the outcomes from the assessments that took place between July 2023 and July 2024, a report on the work we have done to quality assure the SQE and a report from the SQE Independent Reviewer).

Differential outcomes in professional assessments by ethnicity

Over the reporting year, we continued to explore the reasons for the ongoing differential outcomes for Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates in professional legal assessments.

The disparities by ethnicity reflect broader patterns seen across higher education and professional assessments in other sectors and have been present for many years. Our monitoring data for the reporting year shows the disparities are present in both the SQE and the Legal Practice Course (LPC). The LPC was the primary route to qualification before the SQE was introduced. Our data on LPC outcomes for 2023/24 shows that White candidates had higher successful completion rates for the LPC than candidates from minority ethnic backgrounds. The SQE annual report 2024 shows that candidates from White and Mixed ethnic groups achieved higher pass rates in both SQE1 and SQE2 than those from Asian or Black ethnic groups.

The research we commissioned from the University of Exeter to better understand the causes of this disparity was published in June 2024. This research (which was based on the experience of the LPC) found there was a combination of factors contributing to these outcomes, including experiences of candidates during their education and from their early engagement with and perceptions of the profession.

Exeter highlighted the importance of collaborative action to effect change, so we held a summit in October 2024 with key stakeholders from the education and legal sectors.

The discussions informed our work to develop the action plan which was published in March 2025. We are making good progress in meeting the commitments we made in the action plan and work is ongoing.

Pathways into the profession for disabled candidates

We have worked closely with Kaplan, the assessment provider for the SQE, to ensure reasonable adjustments are available for disabled candidates.

During the period covered by the SQE report, Kaplan implemented 1,554 reasonable adjustment plans. The proportion of candidates with a reasonable adjustment plan varied between 7% and 11% for each assessment. The Independent Reviewer considered that the reasonable adjustment process worked well over the relevant period.

The SQE annual report indicated that for assessments between July 2023 and July 2024, disabled candidates performed as well as, or better than those without a disability.  However, there were lower successful completion rates for disabled candidates on the LPC route in 2023/24, compared to those who did not declare a disability. We also monitor pass rates for SQE candidates with a reasonable adjustments plan and over the relevant period, candidates with and without a reasonable adjustment plan had similar pass rates. Where there were differences, those with a plan had higher pass rates than those without.

The use of assistive technology as a reasonable adjustment in SQE assessments continued to grow over the relevant period and we took forward our plans to progress our Assistive Tech Forum. Assistive technology can include any device, software or equipment used to help improve a person's functioning capabilities. The forum brings together expert disability advisers from the education and legal sectors to share knowledge and experience of using assistive technology across all stages of education, in professional assessments and in the legal workplace.

Solicitor apprenticeships

Solicitor apprenticeships have an important role to play in widening access to the profession.

Data shows that, when compared with the wider SQE cohort, solicitor apprentices are more likely to have attended a state school, have parents who did not attend university and come from a lower socio-economic background (determined by their parent’s occupation).

There was an increase in those starting a solicitor apprenticeship in 2023/24 (1,350 from 780 in 2022/23). It is encouraging to see apprentices performing well in the SQE. Those taking the assessment in this period typically performed better than other candidates in SQE2. Their performance in SQE1 assessments is similar to, or better than, other candidates.

We continued to encourage law firms to tackle retention and progression, with particular focus on women and people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. Over the reporting year this has included:

• hosting a webinar and developing online resources highlighting good practice in recruitment, retention and progression
• presenting at the InterLaw Diversity Forum UK Model Diversity conference, where we discussed our guidance on workplace environment and our expectations of law firms
• partnering with the Social Mobility Business Partnership to host students from less privileged backgrounds in Birmingham for a day at our offices, to build their skills and experience.

We have also continued our ongoing work to encourage LGBTQ+ inclusion in the profession, coming together with law firms to support Pride in Birmingham and Cardiff. We also updated our online resources for law firms fostering LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace.

We are proud to have been ranked 11th in Stonewall's Top 100 employers and given a Gold Award for our work with the profession and internally to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Upholding high professional standards in the profession

We have taken steps to promote and encourage best practice in treating people fairly, in line with our guidance on ‘workplace environment: risks of failing to protect and support colleagues’. We engaged with almost 60 of the largest firms that have a regulatory management (RM) relationship with us, with many firms telling us the meetings were a useful opportunity to audit their approach. We also held two events with RM firms to reflect the best practice we found.

In addition, we continued to receive and deal with reports about offensive behaviour, bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct. We take these matters seriously and have taken several cases to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (read more in our Driving Confidence and Trust in Legal Services – SRA Annual Report 2023/24).

These include:

• the first case where a senior partner was struck off for workplace bullying
• three cases where solicitors were suspended for sexual misconduct
• a case where a solicitor was fined for antisemitic comments about a law firm.

Overrepresentation of minority ethnic solicitors in our enforcement work

It is important to make sure that our enforcement processes are fair and free from bias.

As seen in other sectors, there is a longstanding and troubling pattern of overrepresentation of people from a Black, Asian and minority ethnic background in our enforcement processes.

We commissioned research by York, Lancaster and Cardiff universities to help us better understand the factors causing this overrepresentation. The research looked at factors present in the legal profession and wider society which might be causing these patterns. The research included a review of the assessment process we apply to determine which reports (concerns about misconduct raised with us) we should take forward for investigation.

The findings from the research paint a complex picture overall. Firm size was one of the factors which affected the likelihood of a report being made to us, and appeared to contribute to, although not fully explain, the overrepresentation seen. We recognise that smaller firms have fewer resources to manage complaints and compliance issues, so we committed to seeing what more we can do to promote our resources and guidance to them.

The research found our EDI and unconscious bias training modules were ‘best practice’ and described our assessment processes as being ‘for the most part, as robust as they can be’. We agreed to take steps to further strengthen our approach and have started implementing the suggestions made in the research.

Learning from complaints about our service

We published an overview of the service complaints we receive alongside the annual report from our Independent Reviewer of Complaints (IRC).

The IRC provides external oversight of our complaint handling and a final review stage for individual complainants. We look separately at any complaints we may receive about bias and discrimination to consider learnings we can take from them. Neither we nor the IRC upheld any complaints about discrimination or bias over the reporting year. However, there was one case where we apologised for getting a complainant's pronouns wrong and inadvertently misgendering them.

Three complaints about our reasonable adjustments process were escalated to the IRC at the third and final stage of our complaints process. The IRC concluded that we had addressed these fairly from a complaints handling perspective. They noted in one case that no adjustment had been asked for and, in another, an oversight regarding a reasonable adjustment had been corrected at an early stage of the process. In relation to the third complaint, while the IRC concluded we had acted fairly, it recommended that we should fully explain the reason behind any decision to refuse a complainant's request for a reasonable adjustment.

We recognise there is more to do in terms of awareness and implementation of our reasonable adjustments process across teams. We are undertaking a review to assess how well our process, guidance and training on reasonable adjustments is being embedded across the organisation and to identify any areas of improvement.

Data and evaluation

It is important to continue to build and update the diversity data we hold about the profession, which we can use to monitor the impact of our work and the pace of change in the profession.

In 2023, we collected diversity data from law firms, including more detailed information about diversity at the most senior levels.

This data is published in our firm diversity data tool with a review of key findings. This is regularly quoted within the legal sector, and we were also invited to speak to the finance sector about our approach, at a webinar organised by the think tank New Financial.