On 6 August 2025, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) announced the award of £360,000 to 11 organisations to support aspiring solicitors from disadvantaged backgrounds with the cost of sitting the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). The funding, drawn from the SQE Access and Reinvestment Fund—financed through performance-based payments from Kaplan, the SQE provider—marks the fund’s first distribution since the SQE was launched in 2021.
The selected organisations include universities, training providers, and social mobility initiatives such as the Legal Social Mobility Fund, Social Welfare Solicitors’ Qualification Fund, and the Law Society of England and Wales’ Diversity Access Scheme. Their programmes range from improving accessibility in the legal profession for underrepresented groups to providing legal advice for veterans and their families. Each organisation will manage its own candidate selection process.
The funding will cover SQE1 (£1,934), SQE2 (£2,974), or both, enabling up to 190 candidates to sit exams as early as January 2026. SRA Chief Executive Paul Philip emphasised that the scheme reinforces the SQE’s core aim of creating a diverse profession by removing financial barriers, ensuring that “talent, not financial circumstances, should determine who can become a solicitor.”
The initiative builds on the SRA’s SQE Annual Report 2024, which highlighted that solicitor apprentices—often from state-educated and working-class backgrounds—are widening access and achieving favourable pass rates. The SRA will continue to monitor the scheme’s impact and reinvest funds into future access initiatives, reinforcing its commitment to diversity and inclusion within the UK legal profession.