SRA commissions £40,000 diversity research

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has commissioned research to find out why ethnic minority solicitors are over-represented in its regulatory decisions, the Gazette has learned.

The £40,000 study, by business psychologists Pearn Kandola, will look at issues including the SRA’s processes, the career progression of ethnic minority solicitors, the fields in which they work, and how other regulators deal with similar issues of disproportionality. It will also ask ethnic minority solicitors about their experiences of being regulated by the SRA.

The research follows an independent report by Lord Ouseley, the former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, and internal reports which evaluated SRA data and identified that ethnic minority solicitors are more likely to be subject to regulatory action.

Lord Ouseley’s report, published in July 2008, found ethnic minority solicitors were over-represented in all areas of regulation. He found no evidence of any inappropriate findings made against solicitors by the SRA and acknowledged its commitment to equality and diversity. But he said its policies, procedures, practices and actions, however unintended, can be perceived to have disproportionate, detrimental and discriminatory outcomes for ethnic minority solicitors.

SRA chief executive Antony Townsend said: ‘At the beginning of 2009 we finalised an ambitious strategy to address issues of equality and diversity. This research is one element of that strategy.’

As part of its diversity strategy, the SRA conducted a £74,000 online census to gain information on the diversity of the profession earlier this year.