The Solicitors Qualifying Examination has been more successful than many of its critics claim, analysis by the Solicitors Regulation Authority suggests. The regulator yesterday published the findings of a study by its contractor Kaplan of exam sittings in the four years since the centralised assessment was introduced.

Over 19,000 candidates have passed SQE1 and more than 10,000 SQE2. The SQE cohort is significantly more diverse than the working-age population. Neurodivergent candidates performed better than the wider cohort and four in 10 candidates were from less privileged backgrounds. Solicitor-apprentices performed particularly strongly.

Previous education and past academic achievement had the biggest impact on performance.

Julie Swan, SRA director of training and education, said: ‘The strong performance of solicitor-apprentices is supporting social mobility. Neurodivergent candidates are performing well. This indicates that reasonable adjustments are removing potential disadvantages these candidates might otherwise experience in the assessments.’

 Read more on the latest SQE report in today's magazine, here