Some 69 chambers and organisations representing 4,306 barristers responded to the survey. One third of these had taken action across all four priority areas highlighted in the report: access, retention, progression and culture.
Chambers identified a lack of people (62%) and a lack of time (61%) as the key challenges in tackling race inequality.
Just 8.7% of respondents reported not taking any action.
Bar chair Mark Fenhalls KC said: ‘We want those who have taken action to help spread their good practice to support and collaborate with others.
‘And we want those who haven’t yet started to pick just one or two actions. The Bar Council is here to support chambers, organisations and individuals with information, training, and advice.’ The progress report and other resources are available here.
Meanwhile, research published last week by non-profit social equality consultancy the Bridge Group into the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF) has highlighted a need to set targets and milestones. The JDF, which launched in 2015, is a collective of organisations such as the Bar Council, CILEX and the Legal Services Board (LSB).
The Bridge Group researchers found most JDF members believe it needs more clearly defined aims, more coordinated actions and more collaboration between member organisations. They proposed nine high-level goals for the JDF to monitor and evaluate progress, such as ensuring that ‘at each level of the judiciary, the judiciary better reflects the society it serves’.
The researchers also suggested the JDF adopt specific and measurable descriptions of the changes it wants to achieve, and change its action plan to include group rather than individual initiatives.
Matthew Hill, chief executive of the LSB, said the JDF would incorporate the recommendations into its actions and priorities.
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