Why the SRA Still Hasn't Published SQE Provider Pass Rates - And What It Means For You

When the SRA launched the SQE in 2021, it made a specific promise to aspiring solicitors: pass rates broken down by training provider would be published to help candidates make informed choices. It was one of the key arguments for why the new system would be better than the LPC.

That was over four years ago. As of March 2026, the data has still never been published.

Here is the full story, what went wrong, and what it actually means when a provider tells you their pass rate is "68%."

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The Timeline of a Broken Promise

Late 2023 - The original deadline

The SRA committed to publishing provider-level pass rate data by late 2023. The deadline passed without publication. The reason given: insufficient data.

October 2024 - Still nothing

Ten months past the original deadline, no data. The SRA said it was now working with a third party to build an "interactive tool" so candidates could search the information more easily. The tool did not launch.

February 2025 - "Unexpected problems"

The SRA cited "unexpected problems" with data collection. The issue: when the SRA asked candidates which provider they used, it was asking them when they created their SQE account - often months or years before they had even chosen, enrolled, or completed any course. The data was useless.

April 2025 - The Legal Services Board gives the SRA a red rating

The Legal Services Board (LSB), which oversees the SRA, published its annual assessment. The SRA received a red rating for operational delivery specifically because of the provider pass rate failure. The LSB told the SRA to fix it by autumn 2025.

September 2025 - LSB boss demands action

Interim LSB head Richard Orpin publicly stated that provider pass rates "must be released as soon as possible." The SRA still had not published anything.

December 2025 - A new plan

The SRA announced it was designing a new data collection method: asking students about their preparation provider after sitting the exam but before receiving their results - ensuring the data reflects what they actually used. An SRA-branded comparison tool was promised for "early 2026."

March 2026 - The compulsory survey

In March 2026, the SRA made the prep survey compulsory. Candidates now cannot access their results without answering questions about how they prepared. This will, for the first time, generate clean, complete data.

But that data won't be published for months. Students starting courses now are still flying blind.

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What the Delay Actually Means

Provider pass rates are still entirely self-reported and unverified.

When BPP says their SQE1 pass rate is around 68%, or University of Law says theirs is around 64%, these are figures the providers themselves have calculated, defined, and chosen to share. No independent body has verified them. The SRA has not confirmed them. The methodology differs between providers.

Some providers include only students who completed at least 90% of their course. Others may count only first-time sitters. The definitions are not standardised. A "68% pass rate" from Provider A and a "63% pass rate" from Provider B may not be measuring the same thing.

This is not a criticism of specific providers - it is simply the reality of the current data environment. The national SQE1 pass rate (41% in July 2025) is the only number that is genuinely independent and verifiable.

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Why Some Providers Publish Data and Others Don't

Given the absence of mandatory disclosure, providers are entirely free to publish whatever they like - or nothing at all. The incentive structure is predictable:

• Providers with strong results publish them prominently
• Providers with weaker results tend to stay quiet
• Providers that can't generate a clean number (because their students don't tell them their results) may genuinely not have the data

The absence of published pass rates from a provider is not necessarily evidence of poor performance. It may reflect nothing more than not having a compulsory feedback mechanism.

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How to Actually Compare Providers Right Now

Given that official data doesn't exist, here is how to make a rational comparison:

1. Use self-reported data, but apply context

Self-reported pass rates are the only granular data you have. Use them - but compare providers' methodology footnotes, not just the headline number. If a provider doesn't publish any pass rate data at all, that's worth noting.

2. The national average is your benchmark

SQE1: 41% overall (July 2025). SQE2: 78% (October 2025). Any provider claiming rates significantly above these is doing well by definition - but remember you can't verify the exact methodology.

3. Look at what firms actually use

The "City Consortium" - Freshfields, Linklaters, Slaughter and May, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright, and others - have committed their trainees to BPP. If you're going to a firm in this group, you may have no choice anyway.

4. Student forums are genuinely useful

The Student Room, the Corporate Law Academy forum, and Reddit's r/uklaw contain thousands of first-hand accounts of what it's actually like to study with each provider. The signal-to-noise ratio is low, but patterns emerge over hundreds of posts.

5. The upcoming SRA comparison tool

Once the SRA's planned tool launches - whenever that actually is - it will show pass rates calculated from compulsory survey data rather than voluntary provider self-reporting. This will be the first genuinely independent provider-level data. Watch for it.

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What This Means for Our Data

On this site, the pass rates shown for each provider are self-reported figures - taken directly from providers' own published materials. We show them because they're the best available information, but we are explicit that they are:

• Not verified by the SRA
• Calculated by the provider themselves, using their own methodology
• Not directly comparable between providers

We will update this page as soon as official SRA comparison data is published. The compulsory survey requirement (March 2026) means that clean data is now being collected - the question is when the SRA chooses to publish it.

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The Bigger Picture

The SRA's failure to publish provider pass rates for over two years reflects a genuine structural problem with how the SQE transition was managed. The promise of transparency was central to the case for replacing the LPC - and that promise is only now, in 2026, close to being fulfilled.

In the meantime, the independent comparison sites, student forums, and self-reported provider data are all you have. That's not ideal. But used carefully - with proper scepticism about methodology and incentives - they're enough to make a reasoned decision.

The SQE1 pass rate is 41%. Preparation matters enormously. Whether you choose BPP, University of Law, BARBRI, or a self-study route, the data strongly suggests that choosing and committing to a structured preparation method is more important than which logo is on your course materials.

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The Qualified Path publishes all provider pass rate data with full source attribution and methodology notes. We have no commercial relationship with any SQE provider. Compare all providers →