Bar Standards Board

The Bar Standards Board also authorise and regulate "BSB entities", which fall into two distinct bodies: BSB authorised bodies (previously referred to as "entities") are fully owned and managed by authorised, such as lawyers with a current practising certificate. BSB licensed bodies (also known as "Alternative Business Structures" or ABSs), however, are owned and managed jointly by both authorised and non-authorised individuals. The Bar Standards Board held a workshop at the 2016 Annual Bar Conference, and authorised the first three Licensed Bodies in April 2017, including VII Law, Minerva Law and ShenSmith Law. Licensed bodies have been reported by Thomson Reuters as a leading innovation of the legal industry.

Criticism

Withdrawal from Legal Choices

In 2019, the BSB announced it would be withdrawing from Legal Choices, a consumer-facing website designed to help the public to access information about legal issues and legal advisers. The Legal Services Board criticised the BSB's decision, suggesting that regulators needed to do more to help consumers to understand legal services and compare providers.

Handling of BPTC exams during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the BSB postponed the April sitting of the centralised assessments for the BPTC. It announced that Pearson VUE would deliver the exams remotely in August. A small number of exams could be sat in physical centres where reasonable adjustments were required.

Students alleged that the proposals were discriminatory against those with caring responsibilities, living in noisy houses or with poor internet connection, those menstruating, or those who required breaks. They also claimed that international students in different time zones would be negatively affected. They therefore called for the exams to be delivered as open book. After the BSB responded, students also suggested that the arrangements were not suitable for those shielding from COVID-19.

Pearson VUE also had extremely strict anti-cheating protocols, meaning that if another person was detected in any way, the exam would be terminated with no score given.

During the exams, they were hit with a wide range of technical problems, such as exams being terminated without a reason given or loss of internet connection. Students were also unable to take a break for any reason, leading to several students urinating in receptacles while still sitting their exams.

The BSB apologised to students and appointed an independent review, led by Professor Rebecca Huxley-Binns. The review concluded that the BSB had made the correct decision to cancel the April exams and take on the arrangements of the August exams, and the correct decision to use Pearson VUE to deliver online exams, either at home or in a test centre. However, the review also concluded that the closed book format and the decision not to allow breaks both contributed to the outcomes. Finally, the review suggested that the statistical analysis provided by Pearson VUE about how many examinations had been successfully delivered was not reliable.