In her recent blog, the Chair of the Legal Services Board, said that the regulatory bodies in England and Wales should do more to get a grasp on diversity data. The blog was published after the latest Board meeting and notes that in January the Board agreed with regulators to assess their performance on gathering diversity data about their regulated community. The blog notes that the results were disappointing with only three of the regulatory bodies (SRA, BSB and ICAEW) able to demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the composition of their regulated community, and no regulators being able to demonstrate that they currently have a comprehensive understanding of whether their disciplinary/enforcement procedures disproportionately impact certain groups.
The Board has said that there are shortcomings in the collection of diversity data across the sector and there is also no consensus on what types of interventions have been successful to meaningfully improve diversity across all the protected characteristics and is calling for better data collection across all regulators.
Dr Helen Phillips, chair of the board has said the LSB will help regulatory bodies collect and evaluate the right data to show which interventions have worked. Her organisation will also review the performance framework next year to best measure how regulators are faring.