BSB Drops Plan for New Diversity Duty on Barristers

The Bar Standards Board has dropped its controversial proposal to impose a new diversity duty on barristers, according to The Law Society Gazette. The regulator decided not to proceed with the plan, which would have placed fresh obligations on practitioners across England and Wales.

The BSB (the regulator of barristers in England and Wales) had floated the idea as part of its wider policy work on equality and inclusion at the Bar. The proposal proved divisive. It drew criticism from within the profession, and the regulator has now confirmed it will not be taken forward.

What was the proposal?

The plan centred on a new regulatory duty — a binding obligation written into the professional rulebook — focused on diversity. Duty-based regulation works like this: the regulator doesn't just set outcomes, it requires specific conduct. A diversity duty would have told barristers what they must do, not merely what they must achieve.

That distinction matters to practitioners. Outcomes-focused rules leave room for judgement. Duties invite enforcement. Critics of the proposal worried about exactly that gap between intention and disciplinary exposure.

The BSB sets the rules barristers must follow through the Bar Standards Board Handbook (the code of conduct for the Bar). Any new duty would have sat inside that framework and carried the possibility of professional consequences for breach.

Why did the BSB abandon it?

The Gazette reports the proposal was controversial. That word carries weight in regulatory circles. When a regulator describes its own consultation output that way, it usually signals sustained, organised opposition rather than routine comment.

The Bar has a long history of resisting prescriptive conduct rules. Practitioners tend to prefer principles they can apply with judgement. A mandated diversity duty sat uneasily with that tradition, in the same way a compulsory syllabus sits uneasily with a university that has always trusted its dons to teach freely.

Faced with that resistance, the BSB has stepped back. The decision means no new duty will be added to barristers' regulatory obligations for now.

What does this mean for practitioners?

For barristers, the practical position is simple. Nothing changes in the Handbook. No new obligation applies. Existing equality and diversity requirements under the current framework continue as before.

For chambers and compliance officers, the picture is equally clear. There's no new regime to implement, no fresh training to commission, no revised policies to draft in response to this proposal. The regulatory status quo holds.

For the regulator, the withdrawal is a signal. The BSB has shown it will pull back when a proposal meets firm professional resistance. Future policy consultations may be framed more cautiously as a result, with regulators testing appetite before committing to rule changes.

What happens next?

The diversity duty is off the table. The BSB's broader interest in equality at the Bar has not disappeared, and the regulator retains existing tools under its current rules.

Practitioners should watch for the BSB's next policy statement. It will show whether this withdrawal marks a genuine change of direction or a pause before a differently framed initiative. For now, though, the answer to the profession's objection is unambiguous: the proposal is dead.

The decision closes a chapter that many barristers will be glad to see end. It also leaves open the question of how — and whether — the regulator returns to the subject in a form the Bar can accept.