Monitoring and evaluation

Under Rule rC110.3.e.i of the Handbook, chambers and BSB entities must ‘regularly’ review their equality and diversity policies, as well as their implementation, to ensure compliance with Rule rC110.

Rule rC110.3.f.ii of the Handbook stipulates that chambers must ‘regularly’ review ‘applications to become a member of its workforce’. Further, as set out in gC144, in furtherance of the duty under rC110.3.d to ‘use objective and fair criteria’ in recruitment, the BSB ‘anticipate[s] that the Equality and Diversity Officer will compile and retain data about the relevant characteristics of all applicants for the purposes of reviewing the data in order to see whether there are any apparent disparities in recruitment’. This is to ensure that ‘applicants with relevant characteristics are not refused employment because of such characteristics’.

These rules acknowledge that equality and diversity policies alone do not instigate change. There must be systems in place to ensure policy compliance and effectiveness. Monitoring plays a crucial role in this process.

Monitoring should help identify:

Where action needs to be taken;
The nature and extent of any inequality;
The areas where action is most needed; and
The success of measures aimed at reducing inequality.