UK Barrister Register Scraper

Scrape the Bar Standards Board's official public register for England & Wales — search the Barristers' Register by name or chambers, filter by practising status / area of practice / Public Access, browse past disciplinary findings, check barristers currently under interim suspension, look up BSB-regulated entities (chambers / legal-services businesses), or enrich specific barrister/finding URLs directly. Data comes straight from barstandardsboard.org.uk, the statutory regulator of barristers in England and Wales. No auth, no proxy, no cookies required.

What this actor does

• Five modes:
  • search — search the live Barristers' Register by name or chambers/organisation
  • disciplinaryFindings — browse the public register of past disciplinary findings
  • interimSuspensions — list barristers currently subject to interim suspension or interim conditions
  • entities — BSB-regulated legal-services businesses ("entities"): authorised bodies, licensed bodies (ABS), and previously-authorised bodies
  • byUrl — fetch specific barrister-register or disciplinary-finding URLs directly
• Rich filters on search: practising status, area of practice (27 categories), Public Access registration, authorisation to conduct litigation, and register view (practising vs. sanctioned/disbarred)
• Rich filters on disciplinaryFindings: finding status, disciplinary action/sanction type, hearing type, and a decision-date window (past month / past year / custom range)
• Full profile enrichment — optionally fetches each barrister's/finding's detail page for chambers address, call date, Inn of Court, rights of audience, areas of practice, disciplinary history, breach/offence details, and more
• Empty fields are always omitted — every field on every record is real, extracted data (no null/N/A placeholders)

Output fields

Barrister records (recordType: "barrister")

Field	Description
barristerName	Full name as shown on the register
barristerId	Bar Standards Board's internal register ID
barristerUrl / sourceUrl	Canonical register URL for this barrister
practisingStatusBadge	Register badge, e.g. Practising, Disbarred
currentPractisingStatus	Employed, Self Employed, Dual Capacity, Disbarred, etc.
dateOfCall	Month/year called to the Bar
innOfCourt	Inn of Court membership
practisingCertificateValid	Practising certificate validity period
primaryPracticeAddress	Chambers / employer address
primaryPracticeSwitchboardNumber	Chambers switchboard phone number
rightsOfAudience	List of rights of audience granted
publicAccessRegistered	Whether registered for the Public Access scheme (bool)
authorisedToConductLitigation	Whether authorised to conduct litigation (bool)
areasOfPractice	List of declared practice areas
otherEntitlements	Other regulatory entitlements (e.g. Immigration Work, Probate)
youthCourtsRegistered	Whether registered to work in Youth Courts (bool)
disciplinaryFindings	List of {findingDate, hearingType, findingUrl, findingId} if any exist
registerView	practising or sanctionedNonPractising
recordType, scrapedAt	Always present

Disciplinary finding records (recordType: "disciplinaryFinding")

Field	Description
barristerName	Name of the barrister subject to the finding
barristerRegisterUrl / barristerId	Link back to the barrister's register entry
findingUrl / findingId / sourceUrl	Canonical finding URL and ID
sanction	Sanction imposed
hearingType	Tribunal/hearing type
findingDate	Date of the finding
currentPractisingStatus, dateOfCall, innOfCourt	Barrister's status at time of finding
breachDetails	Rules/Code of Conduct provisions breached
offenceDetails	Narrative description of the misconduct

Interim suspension records (recordType: "interimSuspension")

Field	Description
barristerName	Name of the suspended barrister
details	Full text describing the suspension/conditions
sourceUrl	Link to the listing (with anchor)

Entity records (recordType: "entity")

Field	Description
entityName	Name of the BSB-regulated entity
tradingNameOf	Underlying company name, if the entity trades under a different name
entityStatus	authorised / licensed / previouslyAuthorised
entityType	Legal structure, e.g. Limited Liability Partnership, Private Limited Company
authorisationValidFrom	Date authorisation/licence took effect (YYYY-MM-DD)
renewalDate	Next renewal date (authorised/licensed entities only)
authorisationValidTo	Date authorisation ended (previously-authorised entities only)
practisingAddress / practisingAddressSecondary	Registered practising address(es)
telephone	Contact telephone number, where published
managers	List of named managers/partners
headOfLegalPractice	Head of Legal Practice (HOLP)
headOfFinanceAndAdministration	Head of Finance and Administration (HOFA)
administrationOfOaths	Whether authorised to administer oaths (bool)
authorisedToConductLitigation	Whether authorised to conduct litigation (bool)
sourceUrl	The BSB entities-register download URL this record was extracted from

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	select	search	search / disciplinaryFindings / interimSuspensions / entities / byUrl
searchQuery	string	smith	Name/chambers (mode=search, required) or optional name filter (mode=disciplinaryFindings, entities)
searchField	select	name	name or organisation (mode=search)
registerView	select	practising	practising or sanctionedNonPractising (mode=search)
practisingStatus	multi-select	–	Filter by Dual Capacity / Employed / Self Employed (mode=search)
areasOfPractice	multi-select	–	Filter by one or more of 27 practice areas (mode=search)
publicAccessRegistered	select	any	any / yes / no (mode=search)
authorisedToConductLitigation	select	any	any / yes / no (mode=search)
sortOrder	select	recent	recent or relevance (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingStatus	multi-select	–	Filter by Final / Open to Appeal / Appeal Pending (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
disciplinaryActionType	multi-select	–	Filter by Disbarment / Fine / Other / Suspension (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingType	multi-select	–	Filter by hearing type, e.g. Disciplinary Tribunal (3/5 person) (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingDateRange	select	any	pastMonth / pastYear / custom (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingDateFrom / findingDateTo	string	–	Custom decision-date range boundaries, format YYYY-MM-DD (findingDateRange=custom)
entityStatus	multi-select	–	Filter by authorised / licensed / previouslyAuthorised (mode=entities)
startUrls	array	–	Barrister/finding URLs to fetch directly (mode=byUrl)
fetchFullProfile	boolean	true	Fetch each record's detail page for extra fields
maxItems	integer	30	Hard cap on emitted records (1–1000)

Example: search practising barristers by chambers, filtered

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "no5",
  "searchField": "organisation",
  "areasOfPractice": ["crime", "employment"],
  "authorisedToConductLitigation": "yes",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: browse recent disciplinary findings

{
  "mode": "disciplinaryFindings",
  "sortOrder": "recent",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: disciplinary findings, disbarment or suspension in the past year

{
  "mode": "disciplinaryFindings",
  "disciplinaryActionType": ["disbarment", "suspension"],
  "findingDateRange": "pastYear",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: disciplinary findings in a custom date range

{
  "mode": "disciplinaryFindings",
  "findingDateRange": "custom",
  "findingDateFrom": "2020-01-01",
  "findingDateTo": "2020-12-31",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: check barristers currently under interim suspension

{
  "mode": "interimSuspensions",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: currently-authorised BSB entities matching a name

{
  "mode": "entities",
  "searchQuery": "law",
  "entityStatus": ["authorised", "licensed"],
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: fetch specific barrister URLs

{
  "mode": "byUrl",
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/barristers-register/7C5DCA7B263721A6CB12F687568766BD.html"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Due diligence — verify a barrister's practising status, Inn of Court, and disciplinary history before instructing them
• Legal directories & comparison sites — bulk-import chambers, practice areas, and contact details
• Compliance monitoring — track new disciplinary findings or interim suspensions as they're published
• Recruitment & chambers research — find barristers by practice area, chambers, or public-access availability
• Journalism & legal research — cross-reference disciplinary sanctions with case reporting

Limitations

• The BSB also publishes a "Disqualified persons" page (people barred from working for any BSB-regulated entity). It is not a structured/searchable register — it is a single static sentence ("There are currently no persons disqualified") that is empty at the time of writing — so it is not exposed as a mode here. If the BSB later populates it with a real list, it can be added as a future mode.

FAQ

Is this official data? Yes — everything comes directly from the Bar Standards Board's own public register at barstandardsboard.org.uk, the statutory regulator for barristers in England and Wales.

What's the difference between practising and sanctionedNonPractising register views? practising covers currently authorised practising barristers (Employed / Self Employed / Dual Capacity). sanctionedNonPractising covers barristers who have been disbarred or otherwise sanctioned and are no longer authorised to practise.

Why do some barrister records have fewer fields than others? The register itself only publishes certain fields for certain statuses — e.g. a disbarred barrister has no current chambers address, so that field is simply omitted rather than shown as empty.

Does searchQuery support partial matches? Yes — the register performs a substring/fuzzy match against barrister names or chambers/organisation names, same as the site's own search box.

How far back do disciplinary findings go? Per the Bar Standards Board's publication policy, historical findings before 2002 are not published, and findings without a suspension/disbarment are removed from the register after two years.

Can I look up a barrister I already have a URL for? Yes — use mode: "byUrl" with the full barrister-register or disciplinary_finding URL(s).

Is fetchFullProfile worth the extra request? For search and disciplinaryFindings, the listing page already includes name, status/sanction, and address/hearing-type. Turning on fetchFullProfile (default) fetches each individual detail page for the complete profile — Inn of Court, rights of audience, areas of practice, breach/offence details, etc. Turn it off for a faster, lighter-weight listing-only crawl.