The government signed up to wide-ranging proposals to help young people from less privileged backgrounds enter the legal and other professions this week, but rejected plans to give tax incentives or other ‘targeted support’ to law firms to help them achieve this.

The government’s response to the final report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions, which was chaired by former cabinet minister Alan Milburn (pictured), accepted many of the proposals, including requiring firms to ‘recruit and support a network of young professional ambassadors’ to raise awareness of career opportunities, and requiring firms to adopt the ‘best practice code for high-quality internships’, so that students derive maximum benefit from work placements.

However, the government rejected the report’s proposal for ‘targeted support, such as tax incentives’ to help firms open up access, describing such measures as not being effective and carrying ‘considerable risk of deadweight’.

Law Society president Robert Heslett said success within the profession should be the result of merit and hard work, not social background. ‘A look at today’s solicitors’ profession reveals that the numbers of women and people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds entering the profession are good and, overall, the profession has (already) become much more reflective of the society it serves.’

Many legal practices have excellent outreach schemes to encourage young people who might not otherwise consider a career in law, Heslett said, while the Society itself runs the Diversity Access Scheme and last year launched the Diversity and Inclusion Charter.

Bar Council chairman Nick Green QC said the bar has worked hard to improve access to the profession.

As part of its strategy, the government is to set up a Gateways to the Professions Collaborative Forum to work with the professions to achieve its social mobility programme. Legal Services Board chief executive Chris Kenny will become chairman of a sub-group which will ‘examine how regulators can embed diversity into their strategy and reporting’.