thorpeThe Inns of Court have reacted to a damaging internal report which concluded that ethnic minority and women barristers are chronically under-represented among their leaders by putting off any discussion into the matter until May.

And even then the Council of the Inns of Court (COIC) has agreed only to discuss “the suggested establishment of a working group” to examine why in 1999 just eight of the 1,028 benchers in the four Inns were from ethnic minorities.