29 Apr 2020

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has joined the Bar Council in implementing a pay and recruitment freeze, which aims to deliver a saving of £110,000 in its budget.  The Chair, Vice-Chair and Director General of the BSB have also joined the heads of the Bar Council in taking a voluntary 20% pay cut.

The Resources Group, which is the shared services team that serves both the Bar Council and the BSB, has also furloughed 15% of its staff (six roles out of 41). Regulatory demands, such as the need to make new arrangements for Bar students whose exams have been delayed and to help the Bar to maintain pupillages, mean that the BSB has been unable to furlough staff now.

Mark Neale, Director General of the Bar Standards Board, said: “For the BSB, as regulator of the Bar, the current crisis has actually increased workloads in several areas.   We are working hard, for example, to ensure that students who were unable to take their Bar exams in April have the chance to take them as soon as possible and to support the Bar as it seeks to maintain pupillage opportunities.  But we shall continue to seek savings wherever we can.”

ENDS

About the Bar Standards Board

Our mission is to regulate barristers and specialised legal services businesses in England and Wales in the public interest. For more information about what we do please visit: http://bit.ly/1gwui8t

Around 90% of the Bar Standards Board’s income comes from the Practising Certificate Fees (PCF) which barristers are required to pay in order to practise.  The PCF is shared between the BSB which receives 66.7%, the Bar Council (27.9%) and the Legal Services Board and Legal Ombudsman (5.4%).   The rest of the BSB’s revenue comes from charges including the fees from Authorised Education and Training Organisations (AETOs) who train barristers, and from the Bar Transfer Test (BTT) which is taken by those seeking to transfer to the Bar.

The PCF is set having regard to barristers’ incomes for the previous calendar year.

Contact: For all media enquiries call: 020 7611 4691 or email [email protected].

More on