New SRA report uncovers factors behind SQE performance gaps and pass rate fluctuations

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The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has identified previous education and academic achievement as having the most impact on candidates’ performance in part one of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE).

In its recently published report, The SQE: Four Years on - Facts and Figures, the SRA draws together candidate data and two recent analyses by SQE assessment provider Kaplan. The review looked into candidates’ backgrounds, finding that 35% of candidates identified as Asian, Asian British, Black or Black British (compared to a total of 14.5% in the working population), and that 38% of SQE candidates were from less privileged backgrounds. Performance differences were evident across different ethnic groups, with data showing that white candidates generally performed better. There was an 8% variance for SQE1 scores and a 4% variance for SQE2 results linked to this factor, indicating a notable disparity.

University ranking and past academic achievement have had the most impact on performance, accounting for a 22% variance at SQE1. In other areas, male candidates tended to perform better than female candidates in SQE1 (with the reverse in SQE2) and candidates from lower socioeconomic backgrounds generally scored less well than their more advantaged peers.

Elsewhere, solicitor apprentices generally performed well, with pass rates of 71% and 93% for SQE1 and SQE2, respectively, compared to overall pass rates of 66% and 85%. Julie Swan, the SRA’s director of education and training, said: “The strong performance of solicitor apprentices is to be celebrated and is supporting social mobility.”

Meanwhile, neurodivergent candidates achieved slightly higher scores than the wider cohort. Swan added: “This indicates that reasonable adjustments are removing potential disadvantages these candidates might otherwise experience in the assessments.”

Despite this, Kaplan’s performance analysis (published in November 2025) suggested that demographic factors had a limited impact on SQE performance – with gender, age, disability and indicators of a candidate’s family’s socioeconomic position all accounting for less than a 1% variance. The evaluation also found that 67% of the variance in results is unexplained by the data recorded, which suggests differences in results are most impacted by other factors, such as how a candidate prepares, as opposed to demographic characteristics.

The report examined fluctuations in SQE pass rates over the past few years. Several factors were cited, including an increase in candidates resitting the SQE and those qualified in other jurisdictions, with both groups generally performing less well than others. The review added that candidates qualifying through transitional Legal Practice Course arrangements performed less well in SQE2 than the wider cohort.

To date, more than 19,000 candidates have passed SQE1 and more than 10,000 candidates have passed SQE2.