Diversity at the Bar is ‘inching’ forward but needs to accelerate, Bar Chair Derek Sweeting QC said this week in response to the annual Bar Standards Board diversity report.
There were encouraging results among the most recent entrants to the Bar, with 23% of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds and equal numbers of male and female pupils.
Elsewhere in the practising Bar, however, only marginal changes were recorded, including a 0.7% increase in minority ethnic silks to 8.8% of QCs, and a 0.6% rise in female QCs to 16.8%. The full results are available here.
