The Bar Standards Board has agreed a formal protocol with the Bar Council governing how reports of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at the Bar will be handled, in a significant regulatory step that reshapes the reporting obligations of barristers and the responsibilities of chambers across England and Wales.
The protocol, published today, follows the appointment of Dame Maria Miller as the Bar Council’s Commissioner for Conduct, herself a direct recommendation of Baroness Harman’s independent review into bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at the Bar.
Under the agreed framework, the BSB and the Commissioner will operate a structured referral system: where reported conduct meets the threshold for serious misconduct, the BSB will take regulatory action; where it does not, the Commissioner will support individuals to raise concerns with the responsible body, whether that is a chambers or the judiciary.
One of the more consequential changes embedded in the protocol affects the mandatory reporting duty that barristers carry under BSB rules. Previously, a barrister aware of serious misconduct by a colleague was required to report directly to the BSB.
Under the new pilot, that duty can now be discharged by reporting either to the Commissioner or to the BSB itself, where the conduct relates to bullying, harassment or sexual harassment. The BSB has also moved to remove the obligation on victims and their confidants to make a report at all, allowing the Commissioner to offer support without automatically triggering the regulatory process.
The new guidance introduces a “reasonable suspicion” standard for recommending reports — a lower threshold than certainty, and one that reflects a deliberate shift towards encouraging disclosure rather than suppressing it through the perceived weight of formal regulatory consequence.
Professor Christopher Bones, Chair of the Bar Standards Board, described the protocol as part of a broader commitment to culture change at the Bar. Dame Maria Miller, six months into her role as Commissioner for Conduct, said the agreement addressed barriers to reporting that Baroness Harman’s review had specifically identified.
Barristers in independent practice, heads of chambers and those with management responsibilities in sets face immediate practical implications from the new protocol.
The dual reporting pathway means internal handling of harassment complaints can no longer be treated as a substitute for regulatory engagement, the Commissioner’s involvement does not insulate a chambers from BSB scrutiny if the threshold for serious misconduct is met. Chambers governance policies and equality leads should review existing complaint procedures against the new referral framework without delay, as the BSB has signalled it will act where the protocol’s threshold is crossed.