Every year, we publish an annual Business Plan to outline in more detail which activities we will undertake and when.
This Plan was approved by the board in March 2025.
This Business Plan lists the specific activities that we will undertake during 2025-26 against each of our strategic aims.
The year ahead will be pivotal for the Bar Standards Board as we finalise our new five-year strategy for 2026-31 on which we are currently consulting.
This business plan sets out what we intend to deliver over the next year to sustain high standards at the Bar to promote the diversity of the profession and to improve access to barristers’ services, while also enhancing the regulatory capacity and independence of the Bar Standards Board. Our ambitious Reform Programme aims at proactive, consumer-focused regulation, at modernised delivery of regulatory functions and at building on the capability and engagement of our people.
Four priorities will guide our work for the year ahead:
- The Bar Standards Board delivering in the public interest – maintaining standards through authorisations, enforcement, supervision and consistently hitting our demanding operational targets;
- Reforming the Bar Standards Board – continuous change and improvement through our ambitious Reform Programme which will have a transformative impact on our regulation and the services we provide;
- Strategic issues and developments – focusing on completing key programmes of work; including the revision of the Equality Rules on which the Board will take decisions in May following a full consultation which has deeply engaged the profession and wider stakeholders; and
- Our Future Strategy – laying the consultative, research and analytical groundwork for our strategy ahead of publication in Spring 2026..
Download the 2025/26 Business Plan.
