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News
Bar Standards Board data shows rising number of barristers
updated on 05 August 2024
Reading time: one minute
There were 238 more barristers in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23, according to data from the Bar Standards Board’s (BSB) annual report. This takes the total number of BSB-regulated barristers to 17,656.
The report revealed that there were more applications from “solicitors, EU lawyers, overseas lawyers and legal academics wanting to transfer to the Bar”. BSB data illustrated that 586 made applications in 2023/24 compared to 498 the previous year.
When considering diversity at the Bar, only 41.2% of barristers and 19.9% of King’s Counsel (KC) are women. That said, figures show that there’s more gender diversity among the number of people entering the profession, with 52.6% of pupil barristers being women. Similarly, slightly more pupils are from ethnic minority backgrounds (22%), compared with 16.2% of the profession and 10.2% of KCs. The BSB also reported that 11% of pupils and 5.1% of barristers have a disability.
