Bar Standards Board Seeks 12% Budget Rise to £24M for 2026/27

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The Bar Standards Board has become the latest legal regulator to seek an above-inflation budget rise next year. In its annual business plan for 2026/27, the BSB said it expected its total running costs ‘including our share of the costs of services which we share with the Bar Council – to be nearly £24 million’. This is 12% up on this year's total of £21.141m.

The BSB is forecast to receive £19.7m as income from the practising certificate fee – 71.6% of the total collected, with the remainder divided between the Bar Council, the legal ombudsman and the Legal Services Board.

The plan sets out four priorities for the year, including ‘building a high-performing regulator’, improving culture in the profession, shaping a ‘well-functioning’ market for barrister services that support growth, and ‘enabling success’.

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• LSB set to block 11% budget boost for ombudsman
• In depth: Budget 2025 - what it means for solicitors In its regulatory role, the BSB said it will assess and investigate cases more quickly and prioritise eradicating backlogs and an improved end-to-end process for those reporting concerns. By April 2027, the BSB said it also hopes to have improved confidence in its approach to tackling bullying harassment and sexual harassment, and a long-term plan for future education and training standards, better regulatory decisions supported by clearer insights, clear policy on regulating appropriate entities, and guidance for the profession that supports the ‘safe adoption’ of technology and AI.

Steve Haines, the BSB’s interim director general, said: ‘Our ambition is to reduce the unit costs of our operational work in the coming years and to create a regulatory system that operates effectively. We will also improve confidence in our approach to tackling bullying, harassment and sexual harassment, with better experiences for those who report concerns. We will review our overall approach to education and training at the bar to ensure our work here is efficient and effective.'

The regulator 'will also seek out opportunities alongside the wider legal services sector in support of the growth ambitions for the UK economy'.

This month, the Office for Legal Complaints, which runs the legal ombudsman service, requested an 11.1% increase to its budget to help it deal with unprecedented numbers of complaints. The Solicitors Regulation Authority has yet to release its 2026/27 business plan but in last year’s it sought a 23% rise in its budget to help deal with the growing burden of investigation work.

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