Bar Standards Board Barrister Register Scraper

Scrape the Bar Standards Board's official public register for England & Wales. Search the Barristers' Register by name or chambers, pull the complete authorised-practising register in a single run, browse past disciplinary findings with sanctions, costs and decision documents, check interim suspensions, export BSB-regulated entities, or fetch specific barrister and finding URLs directly. Everything comes from barstandardsboard.org.uk, the statutory regulator of barristers in England and Wales. No login, no cookies, no proxy configuration and no API key are needed.

What this actor does

• Six modes:
  • authorisedBarristers — the full authorised-practising register (about 18,700 barristers) from the BSB's own published CSV, with contact details, member status, reserved activities and any current disciplinary finding
  • search — live search of the Barristers' Register by barrister name or chambers/organisation name
  • disciplinaryFindings — browse the public register of past disciplinary findings, sorted by date or relevance
  • interimSuspensions — barristers currently subject to an interim suspension or interim conditions
  • entities — BSB-regulated legal-services businesses (authorised bodies, licensed bodies/ABS, and previously-authorised bodies), including their reserved legal activities
  • byUrl — fetch one or more barrister-register or disciplinary-finding URLs directly
• Filters that match the regulator's own register: practising status, 28 areas of practice, Public Access registration, conduct-of-litigation authorisation, register view (practising vs. sanctioned non-practising)
• Disciplinary filters: finding status, sanction type, hearing type, and a decision-date window (past month, past year, or a custom range)
• Deep profiles: call date, Inn of Court, practising certificate validity, chambers address and switchboard, other addresses and numbers, rights of audience, areas of practice, other entitlements, youth-courts registration and disciplinary history
• Decision documents: finding records include sanction, costs, status and links to published decision/report documents where the BSB provides them
• Empty fields are always omitted — every value is real extracted data, never null, N/A or a placeholder sentence

Output per barrister (recordType: "barrister")

search returns the listing fields plus enrichment from each profile page. authorisedBarristers returns the full CSV record, which also carries the address split and member status. Fields the source does not publish for an individual are omitted.

Field	Description
barristerName	Full name as published, including title and post-nominal honours where present
title / forenames / surname / honours	Name parts from the full-register CSV
barristerId	BSB register ID extracted from the profile URL (search / byUrl only)
barristerUrl / sourceUrl	Canonical register profile URL, or the CSV download URL for full-register records
practisingStatusBadge	Badge shown on the register, e.g. Practising, Disbarred
currentPractisingStatus	Employed, Self Employed, Dual Capacity, Disbarred, etc.
memberStatus	Membership position, e.g. Tenant, Door Tenant, Sole Practitioner, Manager (BSB Authorised Body)
dateOfCall	Month and year called to the Bar
innOfCourt	Inn of Court
practisingCertificateValid	Practising certificate validity period
primaryPracticeAddress	Main chambers / employer address
addressName, addressFloorStreet, addressTown, addressCounty, addressPostcode, addressCountry	Address components from the full-register CSV
primaryPracticeSwitchboardNumber	Main switchboard number
otherPracticeAddresses	Additional practice addresses listed for the barrister
otherPracticeSwitchboardNumbers	Additional switchboard numbers
fax	Fax number, where the BSB publishes one
rightsOfAudience	Rights of audience granted
publicAccessRegistered	Whether registered for the Public Access scheme (boolean)
authorisedToConductLitigation	Whether authorised to conduct litigation (boolean)
areasOfPractice	Declared areas of practice
otherEntitlements	Other regulatory entitlements, e.g. probate activities, reserved instrument activities, administration of oaths
youthCourtsRegistered	Whether registered for youth courts (boolean)
disciplinaryFindings	List of findings with findingId, findingDate, hearingType, findingUrl, breachDetails, offenceDetails, sanction, costs, findingStatus. findingDate is ISO 8601: YYYY-MM-DD for full decision dates, YYYY-MM for the month-precision summary boxes shown on barrister profiles. The summary boxes themselves carry only date/type/URL/ID; the other finding fields are available in disciplinaryFindings and byUrl finding records and in CSV-nested findings
registerView	practising or sanctionedNonPractising
recordType, scrapedAt	Always present

Output per disciplinary finding (recordType: "disciplinaryFinding")

Field	Description
barristerName	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
costs	Costs order, where published
findingStatus	Final, Open to Appeal or Appeal Pending
hearingType	Tribunal / hearing type
findingDate	Decision date in ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD)
currentPractisingStatus, dateOfCall, innOfCourt	Barrister's details at the time of the finding
breachDetails	Rules / Code of Conduct provisions breached
offenceDetails	Narrative description of the misconduct
documents	Published decision/report documents as {documentTitle, documentUrl, documentType}

Output per interim suspension (recordType: "interimSuspension")

Field	Description
barristerName	Name of the suspended barrister
details	Full text of the suspension or interim conditions
sourceUrl	Link to the listing anchor
recordType, scrapedAt	Always present

Output per entity (recordType: "entity")

Field	Description
entityName	Name of the BSB-regulated entity
tradingNameOf	Underlying company name when the entity trades under a different name
entityStatus	authorised, licensed or previouslyAuthorised
entityType	Legal structure, e.g. Limited Liability Partnership, Private Limited Company
authorisationValidFrom	Date authorisation or licence took effect
renewalDate	Next renewal date (current entities)
authorisationValidTo	Date authorisation ended (previously-authorised entities)
practisingAddress / practisingAddressSecondary	Registered practice address(es)
telephone	Telephone number, where published
managers	Named managers / partners
headOfLegalPractice	Head of Legal Practice (HOLP)
headOfFinanceAndAdministration	Head of Finance and Administration (HOFA)
administrationOfOaths	Authorised to administer oaths (boolean)
authorisedToConductLitigation	Authorised to conduct litigation (boolean)
fullRightsOfAudience	Authorised to exercise full rights of audience (boolean)
probateActivities	Authorised for probate activities (boolean)
reservedInstrumentActivities	Authorised for reserved instrument activities (boolean)
approvedTrainingOrganisation	Approved training organisation (boolean)
immigrationAdvice	Authorised to undertake immigration advice (boolean)
sourceUrl	The BSB entities-register workbook URL
recordType, scrapedAt	Always present

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	select	search	search / authorisedBarristers / disciplinaryFindings / interimSuspensions / entities / byUrl
searchQuery	string	–	Barrister/chambers query for search (required); optional name/chambers filter for authorisedBarristers, disciplinaryFindings and entities
searchField	select	name	Match searchQuery against name or organisation (mode=search and authorisedBarristers)
registerView	select	practising	practising or sanctionedNonPractising (mode=search)
practisingStatus	multi-select	–	Dual Capacity / Employed / Self Employed (mode=search, authorisedBarristers)
areasOfPractice	multi-select	–	Any of 28 practice areas (mode=search, authorisedBarristers)
publicAccessRegistered	select	any	any / yes / no (mode=search, authorisedBarristers)
authorisedToConductLitigation	select	any	any / yes / no (mode=search, authorisedBarristers)
sortOrder	select	recent	recent or relevance (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingStatus	multi-select	–	Final / Open to Appeal / Appeal Pending (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
disciplinaryActionType	multi-select	–	Disbarment / Fine / Other / Suspension (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingType	multi-select	–	Determination by consent, Disciplinary Tribunal (3/5 person), Visitors Hearing (appeal) (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingDateRange	select	any	pastMonth / pastYear / custom (mode=disciplinaryFindings)
findingDateFrom / findingDateTo	string	–	Custom decision-date boundaries in YYYY-MM-DD (findingDateRange=custom)
entityStatus	multi-select	–	authorised / licensed / previouslyAuthorised (mode=entities)
startUrls	array	–	Barrister or finding URLs (mode=byUrl)
fetchFullProfile	boolean	true	Fetch each search/finding detail page for extra fields (not used by authorisedBarristers)
maxItems	integer	30	Hard cap on emitted records (1–20,000)

Example: pull the complete authorised-practising register

{
  "mode": "authorisedBarristers",
  "maxItems": 20000
}

Example: full register filtered to crime barristers with Public Access

{
  "mode": "authorisedBarristers",
  "areasOfPractice": ["crime"],
  "publicAccessRegistered": "yes",
  "maxItems": 500
}

Example: search barristers at a chambers

{
  "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: disbarment or suspension in a custom period

{
  "mode": "disciplinaryFindings",
  "disciplinaryActionType": ["disbarment", "suspension"],
  "findingDateRange": "custom",
  "findingDateFrom": "2020-01-01",
  "findingDateTo": "2020-12-31",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: barristers under interim suspension

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

Example: currently-authorised BSB entities matching a name

{
  "mode": "entities",
  "searchQuery": "law",
  "entityStatus": ["authorised", "licensed"],
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: fetch specific barrister or finding URLs

{
  "mode": "byUrl",
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/barristers-register/7C5DCA7B263721A6CB12F687568766BD.html",
    "https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/disciplinary_finding/183742.html"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Due diligence — verify a barrister's practising status, certificate validity, Inn of Court and disciplinary history before instructing them
• Legal directories and comparison sites — import the full authorised-practising register with chambers, contact details and practice areas
• Compliance monitoring — track new disciplinary findings, sanctions and interim suspensions as they are published
• Recruitment and chambers research — size practice areas, identify Public Access or litigation-authorised barristers, and map chambers
• Regulatory analytics — measure the distribution of practising statuses, areas of practice and reserved activities across England & Wales
• Journalism and legal research — cross-reference a finding's sanction, costs and published decision documents with case reporting

Limitations

• The BSB's Disqualified persons page is currently empty ("There are currently no persons disqualified"), so it is not exposed as a mode. This is a currently-empty surface, not a proven unparseable page.
• The full-register CSV does not publish a barrister profile URL or register ID. Those two fields are available in search and byUrl records, but not in authorisedBarristers records.
• The register's own date filter is unreliable and can return the full findings list for any date selected. The actor therefore applies the decision-date window to each finding's actual decision date, so the filter works as expected.
• Historical findings before 2002 are not published by the BSB.
• Some addresses or phone numbers are genuinely unpublished by the BSB for a particular barrister; those fields are omitted rather than invented.

FAQ

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

What is the difference between the search and authorisedBarristers modes? search asks the live register for a name or chambers match and can enrich each result from its profile page. authorisedBarristers downloads the BSB's published full-register CSV in one request and returns every authorised practising barrister with the complete CSV field set. Use the CSV mode for bulk work and search for targeted lookups.

What is the difference between practising and sanctionedNonPractising? practising covers currently authorised barristers who hold a practising certificate. sanctionedNonPractising covers disbarred or unregistered barristers who have a current disciplinary finding.

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

Does searchQuery support partial matches? Yes. The register performs a substring match on names or chambers/organisation names, the same as the site's own search box. The full-register mode applies the same partial-match rule to the CSV.

Can I get every barrister in one run? Yes. Use mode: "authorisedBarristers" and set maxItems to 20000, the current maximum and above the register size (18,739 rows at the latest verification).

How current is the register? The BSB updates the register continuously, with up to an hour of processing lag. The full-register CSV is regenerated by the BSB; sourceUrl identifies the current downloadable asset (the URL itself does not encode a snapshot date).

Can I look up a barrister when I only have a URL? Yes. Use mode: "byUrl" with full barrister-register or disciplinary_finding URLs.

Are decision documents always available? No. The BSB publishes a decision or report document for some findings only. When a document is published, it appears in documents; otherwise the field is omitted.

Do I need to set up a proxy? No. The actor connects to the public register directly. Just fill in the input and run it.