Neale: Looking to accelerate sexual harassment cases
The number of reports to the Bar Standards Board (BSB) of bullying and harassment has almost doubled in the last year, the regulator has revealed.
While the overall number of reports it received hardly changed, litigants in person (LIPs) were responsible for a third more than in the previous year.
The BSB’s annual report described the increase in the relatively small number of reports about bullying and harassment from 29 to 53 in the year from April 2024 to March 2025 as of “particular note”.
It acknowledged “the criticisms made of our approach to the handling of such cases” by Baroness Harman, who called in her report in September for a commissioner for conduct to tackle bullying and harassment at the Bar, appointed by the Bar Council.
The BSB said it assessed 1,883 reports in 2024/25, 32 more than in the previous year, although we reported recently that the first six months of the current year have seen a 24% spike in report.
concluded 92 investigations, a similar figure to 2023/24 – 56 of cases investigated were dismissed (20), withdrawn (20) or resulted in an administrative sanction (16).
The rest were referred to a Bar disciplinary tribunal, where 29 of them were found to be proved. Nine barristers were suspended and 10 disbarred in 2024/25, exactly the same as the previous year.
The BSB said that family law continued to be the most common source of reports, and these rose by a third this year, from 152 to 200.
Reports by LIPs were up by a similar proportion, from 285 to 387, and accounting for one in five of the total. Many related to family proceedings.
On bullying and harassment, the BSB said there were 12 investigations in 2024/25, compared to 10 the previous year, and five barristers were sanctioned.
The regulator said it had “redesigned our enforcement process to accelerate cases, including those of bullying and harassment and are currently consulting on changes to our regulations to give full effect to this redesign”.
It had consulted on changes to the Bar Tribunals and Adjudication Service to give it “greater power to manage cases and so cut delays at the tribunal stage”. Subject to further consultation, these powers would come into effect from January 2027.
Among the actions being taken to better support witnesses in cases involving bullying and harassment were the introduction of a victim support service, along with training for staff on “a trauma-led approach to regulatory enforcement”.
There would also be a consultation on a change to the regulations to provide that witnesses in sexual harassment cases “should have an automatic presumption of anonymity”.
Mark Neale, director general of the BSB, wrote: “In particular, we recognise our specific responsibility to accelerate the handing of sexual harassment cases and to improve our support for witnesses who will only come forward if they can be confident of a robust, transparent and responsive process.
“Key to addressing the wider cultural challenges identified by Baroness Harman will be the role of chambers.
“Over the last two years, we have worked intensively with the profession to clarify the role which chambers can play in overseeing standards, equality and access.”
Leave a Comment