Shaping how we represent and support you
The results from the survey help shape and prioritise our work in representing and supporting you.
Our 2025 survey asked you about:
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Practice areas and remuneration
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Access to justice and experiences in-person and remote hearings
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Sustainability and climate
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Wellbeing and work-life balance
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Working hours and patterns
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Pro bono work
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Experiences of bullying, harassment and discrimination
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Practice and career development
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Our services
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Professional ethics
We compare results with previous surveys to identify the changing nature of the profession. We can then make evidence-based, data-driven submissions and representations to government and other decision-makers.
How your input guided our actions
Bullying and harassment
The information shared on experiencing and witnessing bullying and harassment is helping to shape the work of the new Bar Council Commissioner for Conduct Dame Maria Miller, particularly in relation to improving routes to reporting incidents, including via Talk to Spot. Our actions include:
- Agreeing a new protocol with the Bar Standards Board for handling reports of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment
- Signing a new agreement with the judiciary to help overcome the barriers of reporting bullying, harassment, discrimination and exclusionary behaviour in court
- Improving our support and guidance for using our reporting tool, Talk to Spot
- Launching a toolkit to support chambers with their responsibilities and support in managing complaints
- Updating our training offer to include an on-demand product
Access to justice
Barristers shared detailed views on the current state of access to justice in England and Wales, including concerns over backlogs and delays, legal aid provision, and court infrastructure. We’re developing this into a report to share with parliamentarians and policymakers later in 2026.
Professional ethics
We found that barristers have a very good understanding of the BSB code of conduct and their professional obligations, but they do face ethical challenges, including pressure from clients to act unethically and maintaining independence. Read our press release and report: Ethics culture remains strong at the Bar.
Hearings
Through repeated questions we’re monitoring the use of remote hearings and your experiences of them to feed into our ongoing discussions with HMCTS. The problems experienced with courts (from backlogs to prisoner transport delays to shortage of counsel) feed into our representations to the government for greater investment in justice. Your experiences of court digitisation projects were fed into our report on civil justice, due to be launched in autumn 2026.
Wellbeing
Working with the University of Portsmouth we continue to monitor barrister wellbeing, publishing the Wellbeing at the Bar 2025 report. In the 2025 survey, respondents reported generally higher levels of work satisfaction and wellbeing compared to 2023, with all 4 main wellbeing measures being higher than in the previous survey. To support ongoing improvements, we launched reflective practice pilots and trauma-informed practice training to support barristers with their wellbeing.
