Pupillage / work-based learning component - Professional Ethics Exam

Following a transition period, passing the Professional Ethics assessment during pupillage is now a requirement for all pupils unless they have a specific exemption authorised by the BSB.

Transferring qualified lawyers (TQLs): If you are a TQL and have been given an exemption from some of the requirements of Bar training, you may still be required to complete a period of pupillage or work-based learning before you are granted authorisation to practise as a barrister. If you are required to complete a period of pupillage or work-based learning as a transferring qualified lawyer, you may also be required to complete the Professional Ethics assessment during your pupillage. The assumption is that all TQL pupils will take the Ethics exam unless you can demonstrate to us reasons for an exemption, for example you are a transferring solicitor who has been awarded Higher Rights of Audience. Please contact the Authorisations team regarding any exemptions.

The purpose of the exam is to:

• distinguish between pupils who are ready to receive their Full Practising Certificate (FPC) and those who are not yet ready.
• safeguard the public by ensuring that those who are authorised to practise (by having received their FPC) have fulfilled the ethical requirements set out in the Professional Statement.
• ensure a strong, ethical profession.

There are three sittings each year, generally in early January, late April and late July.
For 2024, the dates are:

• Tuesday 23 July at 2pm.

For 2025, the dates are:

• Thursday 9 January at 2pm;
• Tuesday 29 April at 2pm; and
• Tuesday 22 July at 2pm.

January 2025 exam

• Applications for adjustments: Wednesday 13 November 2024
• Exam booking: Thursday 21 November to Thursday 5 December 2024
• Exam date: Thursday 9 January at 2pm
• Results available on MyBar: Thursday 6 March

April 2025 exam

• Applications for adjustments: Deadline TBC
• Exam booking: TBC
• Exam date: Tuesday 29 April at 2pm
• Results available on MyBar: Tuesday 17 June

July 2025 exam

• Applications for adjustments: Deadline TBC
• Exam booking: TBC
• Exam date: Tuesday 22 July at 2pm
• Results available on MyBar: Thursday 11 September

There is no requirement for you to have taken or passed the exam during the non-practising period of your pupillage. However, you need to have completed three months of pupillage before undertaking the assessment. This is to ensure that you will have had the opportunity to discuss real life ethical scenarios with your pupil supervisor and other members of Chambers. If you are a transferring qualified lawyer (TQL) and have been granted a reduced pupillage, you do not need to complete three months of pupillage before undertaking the exam.

There is no fee for your first or second attempt. After that, the fee for any resits will be £832. It will be for you to agree with your chambers or employer who pays for any subsequent resits. This should be set out in your written pupillage agreement.

It is an open book exam comprising twelve short answer questions. All parts are equally weighted. Responses are required in the form of narrative prose (short answers). Questions consist of scenarios set within professional practice, each of which require you to engage with one or more issues, applying ethical principles in order to identify, critically analyse, and address the matters raised and to reach an appropriate resolution of those issues. In order to be successful, therefore, you must apply your knowledge of ethical principles, and using the provisions of the BSB Handbook, guidance and other syllabus materials, provide comprehensive analysis and sound reasoning in your answers.

The scenarios will cover a range of settings and areas of law (eg criminal practice and civil practice), but no specialist knowledge of these areas is required. The questions focus on ethical principles which can be equally applied to any field of legal practice.

The exam is three hours long. It is for you to decide how to apportion your time. You will have access to the BSB Handbook in electronic form during the exam.

Information regarding our decision to adopt this format of assessment is available on our website.

All candidates will be able to access the online version of the BSB Handbook via an onscreen link during the exam. However, please note that candidates sitting in a test centre will not be able to use the Download PDF button to open the Handbook as a PDF.

You will be able to have the Handbook and the exam open side-by-side as long as your screen resolution is a minimum of 1920x1080 pixels. All screens in a test centre will meet the minimum screen resolution for the side-by-side view.

Candidates are permitted to copy and paste from the Handbook, and use shortcuts such as CTRL+F to search the Handbook (or by using the Handbook search function).

Candidates sitting in a test centre will be able to access the Handbook as a webpage through a direct link within the exam. Please note that candidates sitting in a test centre will not be able to open the Handbook as a PDF by clicking the link on the webpage, as PDFs will not be visible within Surpass Viewer. Please be aware that the webpage version of the Handbook has a search bar at the top.

Candidates sitting an online proctored exam at home will also be provided with a direct link to the webpage version of the Handbook, however they will also be able to open the Handbook as a PDF using the link on the webpage as their exam will not be delivered through Surpass Viewer.

If you require the Handbook in paper format, please apply for this as an adjustment.

The Ethics exam is open book, and you will have access to the BSB Handbook during the exam. You will not, however, have access to any other materials or webpages, and you may not call the Bar Council Ethical Enquiries line during the exam.

Information on how to book the exam is available in the candidate guide.

The booking window opens online seven weeks before the exam date for those sitting for the first time. It closes five weeks before the exam.

Candidates are expected to accurately identify the Core Duties, rules and other materials which are applicable to the question scenario.

While it is helpful to quote rule numbers and other source material, markers are instructed to look for appropriate application of the relevant rules. You will also have access to the online Handbook during the exam, so there is no requirement to memorise rule numbers as such. 

You may find the assessment guidance and exam instructions useful for more detailed information.

No, provided you have successfully completed the system check and have a working webcam.

The exam will be delivered online; you may choose to sit a remotely proctored exam or in a test centre. We have a network of test centres throughout the UK (test centres may also be available overseas). More information is available in the candidate guide.

You should familiarise yourself with the syllabus. We have also provided some guidance which sets out the learning outcomes as expressed in the Professional Statement, as well as a description of the assessment itself and the classification of answers, our standard setting process, and some of the procedures we will undertake during marking.

We have also provided sample short answer questions and a mark scheme (previously used on the BPTC). The style of the questions has not changed; however, we will mark the pupillage exam in a different way (the new mark scheme is available on our website). A practice assessment in Surpass is available and can be accessed via the left-hand menu on this page. We strongly recommend that you use the Surpass system to try a practice assessment as that way you can trial the computer-based exam experience. You should do this whether you have booked to take your exam in a test centre or online. The practice assessment is not marked and your responses will not be saved, but you will be able to copy and paste them (for example into a Word document) in order to evaluate your answers against the mark scheme. There is no limit to the number of attempts for the practice assessment.

We do not prescribe a preparatory course or play any part in the development of any preparatory materials that may be offered by others.

Preparatory materials have been developed by The Inns of Court College of Advocacy (ICCA). The ICCA’s Pupillage Ethics Materials can be accessed using this link: https://www.icca.ac.uk/pupillage-ethics/.

The ICCA charges a small fee for access to the materials: £150 for pupils, £75 for ICCA alumni (you will have access to the materials for 12 months, irrespective of when you take the assessment).

The Northern Circuit is also providing ethics training for its pupils. You should contact the Circuit for details: https://www.northerncircuit.org.uk/.

There are three sittings each year so you will have further opportunities to resit the exam if you do not pass first time. You must pass the exam in order to be signed off from your pupillage. If you have not successfully passed the exam before the end of your pupillage, it will be for your chambers or employer to decide if they wish to fund an extension to your pupillage to enable you to do so. That should be set out in your written pupillage agreement.

More information is available in the candidate guide and in our adjustments and other arrangements policy. You need to let us know what adjustments should be implemented to enable you to perform at your best during your exam. You will need to provide evidence detailing and to supporting the specific adjustments you require. This information will remain confidential.

It is very important that you tell us about your required adjustments as early as possible, as we will need to book your exams with your adjustments for you. Please tell us about your requirements at least 9 weeks before an exam (and submit your evidence at this point).

For the April 2024 exam, please tell us by Monday 04 March.

If you need other arrangements which do not relate to a disability for your exam, please see the information available in the candidate guide and in our adjustments and other arrangements policy.

For example, if you cover your head for religious reasons, or wear a head covering which covers your face, you will be asked to lift it briefly in order to verify your identity. You may request that your identity be checked in a separate room if you are sitting an exam in a test centre, or may specify the gender of the person who checks your identity either at test centre or for online proctoring, when you identification and environment is checked.

Please tell us about your requirements at least 9 weeks before an exam.

For the April 2024 exam, please tell us by Monday 04 March.

If you need other arrangements which do not relate to a disability for your exam, please see the information available in the candidate guide and in our adjustments and other arrangements policy.

If you are breast-feeding, you may request a separate room at a test centre.

Please tell us about your requirements at least 9 weeks before an exam.

For the April 2024 exam, please tell us by Monday 04 March.

If you need other arrangements which do not relate to a disability for your exam, please see the information available in the candidate guide and in our adjustments and other arrangements policy.

If you express your gender in a way which differs from that stated/portrayed on your government-issued identity document, please let us know in advance so we can ensure that there will be no disruptions during the check-in and identification processes.

Please tell us about your requirements at least 9 weeks before an exam.

For the April 2024 exam, please tell us by Monday 04 March.

Circumstances beyond your control that affect your ability to sit or your performance during the exam can be taken into account as extenuating circumstances. This could include reasons such as illness, other personal circumstances or technical difficulties experienced during the exam. To find out more about extenuating circumstances and how to apply for them, please refer to our Extenuating Circumstances Policy.

Please refer to our Candidate Guide.

If you arrive at the test centre up to 30 minutes after the examination start time, you can still enter the examination room, but the examination time missed by being late will not be added to the finish time of your examination. Please note, if you start late you should  not rely on the exam clock as it will count down the full examination time, but you will not get any extension for being late.

The exam is set and marked by the BSB. You can read more about the role of our Centralised Examinations Board (CEB) here. All those involved in marking, writing questions and setting pass standards are legally qualified; some are practising barristers, some are academics. The BSB takes steps to ensure that there is variety in the pools of consultants. We scrutinise the CVs of all recruited markers, team leaders and standard setters. We conduct regular training and moderation. Wherever possible, markers are allocated to a question aligning with their area of practice.

Yes. However, we do hold a bank of questions and therefore do not publish past papers.

It is expected that competent candidates will have provided at least eight satisfactory answers out of 12, but there will be a review of all candidates on either side of this borderline which will involve a holistic view of the candidate’s entire script.

Where a candidate has three or more sub-part answers graded as ‘Unacceptable’ the candidate will be graded ‘Not Competent’, regardless of the grades awarded for answers to other sub-parts. Please note that providing no answer to a question will count as an 'Unacceptable' answer.

More information on the grading of the assessment can be found in the Chair’s Report for each exam session.

More information is available in the candidate guide.

Your result will typically be available eight weeks after taking the exam. Your result will be uploaded to your Bar Training Record on MyBar. Once you have passed the Ethics exam, you will need to authorise your pupil supervisor to view the result on MyBar.

If you have not passed the exam, we will provide feedback which is given with the intention to help you improve your performance. The feedback will be sent to you via email. We suggest that you share the feedback with your pupil supervisor so they can assist with any remediation.

Please refer to our feedback policy for more information.

Please note that, if we are to experience technical difficulties with the MyBar platform, you will receive your results via e-mail.

We do not prescribe to a set passing quota or passing rate. Each paper is set and follows standard pre-exam processes of quality assurance, and post-exam procedures of standard setting, moderation and statistical analysis, with intervention if justified, overseen by an independent psychometrician and an independent observer. Instead of having a passing quota, we use a competency based standard setting method which aims to ensure that all candidates who have attained the skills and knowledge set out in the professional statement pass the exam and candidates which have not yet reached this level of competency do not pass. The final passing rate is taken as valid, regardless of where it falls.

For the BPTC Ethics exam, the pass rate was typically around 70%. It is not possible to predict the pass rate for the pupillage-stage exam, however it is worth noting that:

• All pupillage Ethics exam candidates will have passed the Bar Training Course and been selected for pupillage;
• The pupillage Ethics exam is open-book; and
• Candidates will have more time to complete the pupillage Ethics exam than for the BPTC Ethics exam.

Challenges against the academic judgement of examiners are not permitted.

Under our candidate review process, examination answers are not re-marked but you may request:

• an enhanced clerical error check; and/or
• a request for review

Please ensure you have read the Professional Ethics Regulations Governing Candidate Review before applying for either of the above.

More information is available in the candidate guide.

Following a transition period, passing the Professional Ethics assessment during pupillage is now a requirement for all pupils unless they have a specific exemption authorised by the BSB.

Transferring qualified lawyers (TQLs): If you are a TQL and have been given an exemption from some of the requirements of Bar training, you may still be required to complete a period of pupillage or work-based learning before you are granted authorisation to practise as a barrister. If you are required to complete a period of pupillage or work-based learning as a transferring qualified lawyer, you may also be required to complete the Professional Ethics assessment during your pupillage. The assumption is that all TQL pupils will take the Ethics exam unless you can demonstrate to us reasons for an exemption, for example you are a transferring solicitor who has been awarded Higher Rights of Audience. Please contact the Authorisations team regarding any exemptions.

We do not expect pupil supervisors to act as tutors, though we expect you to be active and engaged in supporting your pupils in sitting their Ethics exam. The duties imposed on pupil supervisors are set out in the Bar Qualification Manual which states that your role is to provide pupils with a suitable training programme which enables them to meet the competences in the Professional Statement to the threshold standard, in accordance with the Curriculum and Assessment Strategy. Teaching and assessment of Professional Ethics at foundation level will have taken place during the vocational component. Individuals who are of the calibre to obtain pupillage will already have demonstrated ability at that level and can reasonably be expected to be able to apply that foundation knowledge in the workplace. The context of an environment in which real life scenarios can be discussed with you and other members of Chambers or colleagues is the appropriate environment for a developing professional to demonstrate application of knowledge.

You may wish to think about whether you want to adjust your pupillage training plan to reflect the timing of the Ethics exam and, if you feel you want to build in anything different to help your pupils prepare, that will be for you to determine.

We must stress how important it is to ensure that pupils know what they need to do and when, like registering their pupillage and applying for a Provisional Practising Certificate. So, whilst it is their responsibility, please make sure you guide your pupils to read and understand the latest and most up to date information available on our website, so that they know how they can prepare for the exam, when to book, how to apply for adjustments, and how they will get their results.

No, the ethical issues pupils will encounter in the exam are non-specific enough so that any practising barrister would be expected to have an awareness of them.

We do not expect pupil supervisors to act as tutors, though we expect you to be active and engaged in supporting your pupils in sitting their Ethics exam. The BSB prescribes outcomes for pupil supervisor training, including becoming familiar with the Curriculum and Assessment Strategy and Professional Statement, and effectiveness as a pupil supervisor. As most pupil supervisor training is delivered by the Inns and Circuits, please speak to your Inns or Circuit if you would like them to adapt the course to cover anything specific.

The exam is set and marked by the BSB. You can read more about the role of our Centralised Examinations Board (CEB) here. All those involved in marking, writing questions and setting pass standards are legally qualified; some are practising barristers, some are academics. The BSB takes steps to ensure that there is variety in the pools of consultants. We scrutinise the CVs of all recruited markers, team leaders and standard setters. We conduct regular training and moderation. Wherever possible, markers are allocated to a question aligning with their area of practice.

Yes. However, we do hold a bank of questions and therefore do not publish past papers.

No, because the mark scheme differs from that of the BPTC Ethics exam. Please see the example mark scheme.

It is expected that competent candidates will have provided at least eight satisfactory answers out of 12, but there will be a review of all candidates on either side of this borderline which will involve a holistic view of the candidate’s entire script as a whole.

The Ethics exam is open book, and pupils will have access to the BSB Handbook during the exam. They will not, however, have access to any other materials or webpages, and they may not call the Bar Council Ethical Enquiries line during the exam.

There is no requirement for pupils to have taken or passed the exam during the non-practising period of pupillage. However, they need to have completed three months of pupillage before undertaking the assessment. This is to ensure that they will have had the opportunity to discuss real life ethical scenarios with you and other members of Chambers or colleagues.

This issue is not specific to Ethics; they will need to re-familiarise themselves with all relevant areas. Having an assessment during pupillage puts the point of assessment closer to the point of authorisation which is good pedagogic practice.

We have not mandated a preparatory course for which time away from the pupillage training programme is required. Self-study materials are available from the Inns of Court College of Advocacy. It will be for pupils to decide if they wish to use these materials and for AETOs to agree with pupils when and how they prepare for the exam.

There is no fee for the first or second attempt. After that, the fee will be £832. It will be for you to agree with your pupil who pays for any subsequent resits. This should be set out in your written pupillage agreement.

We went out to consultation on how to recover costs for the new Bar training rules in December 2018. The practising certificate fee is being used to fund the first two sits for each pupil. Any sits beyond this will need to be paid for. It is up to Chambers’/ the employer’s discretion to determine whether they will be funding these or passing on the cost to pupils.

Your pupil’s result will typically be available eight weeks after taking the exam. Their result will be uploaded to their Bar Training Record on MyBar. They will need to give you access to their account to view their result on MyBar.

If your pupil has not passed, we will provide feedback which is given with the intention to improve their performance. The feedback will be given to your pupil via email. We would recommend that you ask your pupil to share this feedback with you, so you can assist with any remediation.

If your pupil has not successfully passed the exam before the end of their pupillage, it will be for you to decide if you will fund an extension to their pupillage to enable them to do so. That should be set out in your written pupillage agreement. If your pupil has their pupillage extended, they will need to inform the BSB Authorisations team ([email protected]). This is important to ensure that their Provisional Practising Certificate does not expire

No, as with all other elements of pupillage, they are still in training and under your supervision.

If there are any indications that give rise to a concern, an Authorised Education and Training Organisation may be subject to review by the BSB’s Supervision team