We have published the results of our recent diversity and workplace survey https://ipreg.org.uk/about-us/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-working-together-encourage-diverse-profession.
Next steps will be to look at how we can use our regulatory levers to continue to encourage diversity within the professions and identify opportunities to work with the 260 firms we regulate (which employ around 75% of registered attorneys) to support our aims on diversity and inclusive practice.
We will be discussing the report with our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) consultant Laura Serrant, the representative bodies, and IP Inclusive, as well as setting up a dedicated roundtable meeting of stakeholders. The findings and discussions stemming from that will inform our new public facing EDI Policy, currently in development, as will the LSB’s recent decision not to pursue its proposed statutory statement of policy.
IPReg welcomes the LSB’s decision not to proceed with the proposed statement, and its recognition that regulators need scope to develop evidence-led and proportionate approaches. The LSB’s decision does not lessen our commitment to the regulatory objective; it gives us appropriate scope to pursue it in a way that reflects the particular characteristics of the patent and trade mark professions.
We remain committed to keeping up the momentum in the EDI space, through evidence-led decision-making, targeted on where regulatory action can make a demonstrable difference.