Barristers will soon be required to report all complaints to the BSB. Here’s what chambers needs to have in place.
The BSB has confirmed it will proceed with new rules requiring barristers to report all client complaints annually via their chambers or BSB-regulated entity. The rules follow a consultation launched in May 2025 and align with the Legal Services Board’s statutory statement of policy on first-tier complaints oversight.
What the rules will require
Self-employed barristers and those practising in BSB-regulated entities will be required to report all client complaints to the BSB, regardless of severity or outcome. Employed barristers practising outside BSB regulation are excluded.
The rules will also formalise the responsibility of chambers and BSB entities to monitor and engage with complaints made against their tenants or staff. For many chambers this will mean re-educating those who handle with complaints, developing new reporting frameworks, allocating administrative resource, and ensuring that complaints are not just responded to but recorded and reflected upon systematically.
The BSB accepted the Bar Council’s argument that collecting data on the protected characteristics of complainants, such as race or gender, would create practical difficulties, and has decided not to implement that field.
When this comes into effect
The BSB anticipates that the first submissions of complaints data will not begin until autumn 2026 at the earliest, with barristers given at least four months to prepare for compliance. Submissions are expected to be made via a new form in the MyBar portal, though chambers-level data collection is also being considered.
What chambers should be doing now
The gap between now and autumn 2026 is the window to get systems in order. Chambers should review how complaints are currently recorded, whether informal feedback is distinguished from formal complaints, how records are kept, and who within chambers is responsible for monitoring and reporting. A procedure that relies on individual barristers’ memory rather than documented process will not meet what the BSB is moving towards.
The volume of complaints is rising and the regulatory expectation around how chambers handles them is becoming more formal. Chambers that treat this as an administrative task risk being caught short. Those that treat it as a governance question will be better placed.