Agenda emerges from Neuberger's access review as report set for Easter publication; the Bar Council lobbies for Legal Services Board independence; and Littleton Chambers names new chief executive. Claire Ruckin reports on the latest developments at the Bar

A report on widening access to the Bar is set to be published by Easter. Appeal court judge Lord Justice David Neuberger is heading up a working party tasked with carrying out a review on the issue, following reports that the chances of students securing a pupillage are at an all-time low.

Neuberger told Legal Week that the party's findings will be sent out with a questionnaire for members of the Bar to fill in. The poll aims to compile views on all aspects of entry to the Bar, from school to university, the Common Professional Examination, the Bar Vocational Course (BVC), pupillage, tenancy and retention.

Neuberger said: "The interim report will lay out some of our preliminary views and will also be a consultation document. We will have to revisit our initial findings once we have received comments back."

Bar Council chairman Geoffrey Vos QC said: "The questions will allow us to consider the maximum number of possibilities and options to widen access to the profession."

The review will include steps to communicate to potential BVC students the current challenge of securing a pupillage or tenancy.

In a speech to the think tank The Social Mobility Foundation (SMF) last month (26 February), Vos highlighted a lack of knowledge of the profession, an intimidating environment in chambers, high costs, lack of pupillages, the challenges of obtaining a tenancy and a lack of early earning power at the Bar as being the main barriers to accessing the profession.

Vos spoke of the Bar as a professional elite offering the best quality of lawyers but warned: "Unfortunately, the elitism that fosters the high-quality services that the Bar stands for has also encouraged another form of elitism… in the sense of exclusivity, exclusion and in the creation of a profession that is barely accessible to equally talented people from less privileged backgrounds."

In anticipation of Neuberger's findings, Vos announced a placement programme to enable gifted children from state schools to learn about the Bar, the courts and barristers at first hand. The programme, coordinated with the SMF, will enable children to decide at an earlier stage if they wish to study law at university.

When the working party was first set up in October 2006, introducing a competency test to cut the number of students taking the BVC was high on the priority list.

Neuberger confirmed that competency tests are still under consideration but admits this could create problems in terms of access: "People who are less privileged could do less well in competency tests as they have not achieved their potential educationally. However, it may be possible to design a test which would overcome this."

The working group also plans to review pupillage funding. Proposals include introducing a low-interest loan to help open up the profession – a scheme that is well under way. However, the group is also considering a controversial return to unfunded pupillages as a means of encouraging more chambers to offer them.

The working group will draw on several resources to inform its findings, including statistical reports such as the Institute for the Study of the Legal Profession's 2006 paper, 'Factors Influencing Decisions On Pupillage Availability', and the Bar Council's survey (carried out by ERS Market Research), entitled BVC Student Survey On Aspirations For Practice At The Bar.

Although much of the data has been looked at before, this will be the first time all of the findings are drawn together for analysis. University of Dundee professor of statistics Martin Chalkley has been brought in to advise on the data.