Bar Standards Board publishes 2024/2025 business plan

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The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has published its latest annual business plan, setting out what the regulator will be doing over the next year to meet its strategic aims.

Launched in 2022, this is the final year of the three-year strategy, which looks to reform the BSB’s regulatory capability while maintaining high professional and ethical standards at the Bar and focusing on increasing diversity and inclusion in the profession.

As part of the strategy, the BSB is currently completing a comprehensive independent review of its enforcement work, as well as a parallel review of its authorisation activities. The aim of this is to improve “both the productivity and timeliness of our decision-making so that all those who use our services can be sure that we shall take the right decisions efficiently and swiftly”, according to the BSB.

On diversity and inclusion, the BSB lists several actions it’ll take in the coming year, including:

• being advised by its religion and belief, race equality and disability taskforces on how best to promote equality and inclusion;
• researching whether the experience of using barristers differs between groups of clients with different protected characteristics; and
• launching an anti-racist strategy and action plan.

The report also cites the ongoing Post Office Inquiry as a priority: “As core participants in the Post Office Inquiry we will also continue to monitor the evidence presented to the Inquiry with a view to identifying where we may need to take regulatory action.”

Commenting on the report, Mark Neale, director general of the BSB, said: “I am determined to ensure that the BSB remains committed to continuous improvement, and that we become a more proactive regulator ready to address threats to the public interest. The interests of the public and of consumers must always guide everything that we do.”

You can read the 2024/2025 business plan via the BSB. The full BSB 2022/2025 strategy is also available to read online.

Find out more about the BSB and the training required to become a barrister via this LawCareers.Net information page.