News release

The SQE: Four Years On - new report highlights diversity and assesses factors affecting performance

29 January 2026

We have published a new report providing data and insights from the first four years of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).

The report, The SQE: Four Years On, draws together candidate data and two recent analyses of performance by Kaplan, the SQE assessment provider. Taken together, these reports show that:

over 19,000 candidates have passed SQE1 to date, and more than 10,000 SQE2
the SQE is attracting a diverse range of candidates. 35% identified as Asian, Asian British, Black or Black British (compared to 14.5% in the working population).
38% of SQE candidates were from less privileged backgrounds
of the factors for which data is recorded, previous education and past academic achievement have the most impact on performance, accounting for 22% of the variance at SQE1.
neurodivergent candidates achieved slightly higher scores and pass rates than the wider cohort of candidates.

The data also shows that solicitor apprentices have generally performed well, with around 71% of those who have taken SQE1 and 93% of those who have taken SQE2 having passed, compared to overall pass rates of 66% and 85%.

Julie Swan, the SRA's Director of Education and Training, said: 'The data contained in this report shows that the SQE is attracting a diverse range of candidates. The strong performance of solicitor apprentices is to be celebrated and is supporting social mobility.

'Kaplan's latest report shows that neurodivergent candidates are performing well. This indicates that reasonable adjustments are removing potential disadvantages these candidates might otherwise experience in the assessments.'

Education and past academic success have the most impact on performance

The Kaplan performance analysis, published in November 2025, shows that of the factors for which we have candidate data the two that have the most impact on performance at SQE1 are previous education and past academic achievement. The impact of different factors is indicated by variance, a measure of how far the performance of candidates with a particular characteristic differs from candidates as a whole. Around 23% of the variance in SQE1 scores can be attributed to prior education and attainment, with the ranking of the university the candidate attended accounting for 11.9% and the degree classification they achieved 10.6%. Performance at SQE1 accounts for 23.5% of the variance at SQE2.

Kaplan's analysis shows that most demographic factors have limited impact on SQE performance - gender, age, disability and indicators of a candidate's family's socio-economic position individually account for less than 1% in variance. Ethnicity is shown to have a greater role, although as a single factor it is still less significant than education and attainment. The Kaplan analysis found that 8% of variance in SQE1 scores can be linked to ethnicity. This drops to 4% for SQE2. Previous research has shown that overall pass rates for SQE1 and SQE2 vary by ethnicity. The variance recorded here only explains a small proportion of the difference in overall pass rates, suggesting a more complex explanation. The Kaplan study records 67% of variance as unexplained by the data recorded, which suggests that other factors, such as how a candidate prepares for the exam, have more impact than demographic characteristics.

Neurodivergent candidates achieve higher pass rates than other candidates

Kaplan's report on the performance of neurodiverse candidates shows that 5.6% of candidates assessed between September 2024 and July 2025 had a reasonable adjustment plan for a neurodivergent condition. Overall, these candidates achieved slightly higher scores and pass rates than other candidates.

Variation in pass rates explained by make-up of each cohort

In the four years since its introduction, SQE1 and SQE2 pass rates have been broadly similar between sittings, but there have been some fluctuations. The data suggests this can be explained by the make-up of each cohort, for example:

the number of resitting candidates has increased as time has gone on. As resitting candidates generally perform less well, this can result in overall pass rates being lower for particular sittings.
lawyers who have qualified in other jurisdictions made up a higher proportion of candidates in some early cohorts. This group generally performed less well than other candidates.
the proportion of candidates who are using the transitional arrangements to qualify, because they have passed the LPC, can also affect overall pass rates. This group also tends to perform less well in SQE2 than other candidates.

The SQE was introduced in 2021. So far 19,281 candidates have passed SQE1 and 10,718 candidates have passed SQE2. For SQE1, the overall pass rate, that is the percentage of all candidates who have passed having taken the assessment at least once since the assessment's introduction, is 66.1%. For SQE2 it is 84.5%.