Racism concerns over legal watchdog

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The review into how black and minority ethnic (BME) solicitors are treated by the Solicitor's Regulation Authority (SRA) was carried out by former chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Lord Ouseley.

It identified "deficiencies, weaknesses and failures" in the organisation and found measures to ensure equality and diversity were still a "work in progress".

The role of the SRA, which regulates more than 100,000 solicitors in England and Wales, is to protect the public by ensuring solicitors meet high standards.

The review looked into why black and minority solicitors were over-represented in areas of regulatory activity. For example, a disproportionate number of black and minority solicitors are referred to disciplinary tribunals. And a disproportionate number of black or Asian student applicants are referred for character or suitability assessments.

The report said: "Without the missing leadership emphasis, management at all levels will continue to regard the commitment to equality and diversity as superficial, tokenistic and unimportant."

It said without action the SRA was "open to the charge of institutional racism, as its policies, procedures, practices and actions, however unintended, can be seen to have disproportionate detrimental and discriminatory outcomes for BME solicitors".

But it said disproportionality was also down to the vulnerability of BME solicitors setting up as sole practitioners.

Responding to the review, the Society of Asian Lawyers, said it had no confidence in the SRA to police the solicitors profession in a fair and impartial way.

Chairman Sundeep Bhatia said: "The report clearly demonstrates that the SRA has not learnt the lessons of the 2006 initial impact assessment and continues to disproportionally target BME lawyers and solicitors in all facets of its regulatory work. The SRA appears to be incapable of putting its own house in order. Token lip service to equality and diversity is not the way to dispel allegations of institutional racism. Radical root reform is required as a matter of urgency."