Ready to register for the SQE?

Create your personal SQE account and book your assessments.

Register for SQE 

Ethics and Professional Conduct changes for SQE2 after 1 September 2026

This information is relevant to candidates taking SQE2 after 1 September 2026.

What is changing?

Changes have been made to the assessment criteria in the SQE2 assessment specification (see Assessments in SQE2) that apply from 1 September 2026. The changes are to reflect the creation of a separate SQE2 ‘Law’ criterion for Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Candidates will see a mark under this criterion in their results page where Ethics and Professional Conduct issues are assessed in an SQE2 assessment station.

This will not involve any change to the format of the SQE2 assessments or the way in which they are marked. Please refer to SQE2 results and marking which sets out the grading scales used, which remain unchanged.

The changes to the assessment specifications (which will replace the existing ones after the July SQE1 and SQE2 assessments) can be found in the SQE changes (September 2026) page.

Why has this change been made?

The separate Law criterion has been created to help increase the visibility and feedback for candidates on their performance on the Ethics and Professional Conduct elements of the SQE2 assessments, aligning with the approach for SQE1. It also allows for more effective tracking of candidate performance in this area.

What changes will I see?

The assessment criteria

Before the changes come into effect on 1 September 2026, Ethics and Professional Conduct issues are marked in the second Law criterion under application of law:

“Apply the law comprehensively to the client’s situation, identifying any ethical and professional conduct issues and exercising judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity.”

From 1 September 2026, Ethics and Professional Conduct will become a separate (third) criterion under Application of law: “Identifying any ethical and professional conduct issues and exercising judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity.”

The three Law criteria will be:

Application of law:

  1. Apply the law correctly to the client’s situation.
  2. Apply the law comprehensively to the client’s situation.
  3. Identify any ethical and professional conduct issues and exercise judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity.

To summarise, there has been no change to the first Law criterion. The second Law criterion has been separated into two distinct criteria.

Results page examples

Below are examples of how the new SQE2 results page will be displayed for candidates when they receive their results. Because Ethics and Professional Conduct are pervasive and unflagged throughout SQE2, this new criterion will appear as a category in the results page for all of the assessment stations. However, candidates will only receive a mark of 0-5 for Ethics and Professional Conduct if a station has a specific Ethics and Professional Conduct point being assessed. See Marking of SQE2 for more information. If Ethics and Professional Conduct is not specifically assessed in a station, ‘N/A’ (i.e. not applicable) will appear in the relevant section of the results to indicate this.

Example 1: Case and Matter Analysis

The Case and Matter Analysis station currently has three "Skills" criteria (numbers 1 to 3) and two “Law” criteria (numbers 4 to 5). Candidates use the numbers from the assessment criteria (see Assessments in SQE2) to check their corresponding mark.

The station will have a new third “Law” criterion for Ethics and Professional Conduct. This new criterion is number 6 in the example shown below. The example shows Case and Matter Analysis is assessed in three practice areas, however, only one of the three Case and Matter Analysis stations includes an Ethics and Professional Conduct score (Criminal litigation).

Example candidate marks for Case and Matter Analysis stations. Only the Criminal Litigation station includes an Ethics and Professional Conduct score, marked as 3. The other two Case and Matter Analysis stations show NA for this score.

Example 2: Legal Writing

The Legal Writing station currently has four "Skills" criteria (numbers 1 to 4), and two “Law” criteria (numbers 5 and 6). Candidates use the numbers from the assessment criteria (see Assessments in SQE2) to check their corresponding mark.

This station will have a new third “Law” criterion for Ethics and Professional Conduct. This new criterion is number 7 in the example shown below. The example shows Legal Writing is assessed in three practice areas, however, only one of the three Case and Matter Analysis stations includes an Ethics and Professional Conduct score (Dispute resolution).

Example candidate marks for Legal Writing stations. Only the Dispute Resolution station includes an Ethics and Professional Conduct score, marked as 3. The other two Legal Writing stations show NA for this score.

How are my station scores and overall score calculated?

The method by which a candidate’s station score and overall score is calculated will remain the same.

When we calculate the score for each station, Skills and Law are equally weighted. So we calculate a percentage for both Skills and Law based on these scores, and then average the two scores to create the score for the station. Both oral and written stations follow an identical process.

The scores for each set of Skills and Law criteria are weighted equally. For example:

  • If there are four Skills criteria (see the Legal Writing example above), then each one counts for a quarter (25%) of the station Skills mark.
  • If there are two Law criteria, then each one counts for half (50%) of the station Law mark.
  • If there are three Law criteria (i.e. where there is an Ethics and Professional Conduct issue being assessed in a station), then each one counts for a third (33.33%) of the station Law mark.

More information can be found on the Understanding what’s included in your SQE2 results page and below.

How to calculate your percentage score

Summary flow chart

Below is a flow chart summary of the process for calculating your SQE2 percentage score for each of the 16 assessment stations - click to enlarge

This remains the same as set out on the Understanding what’s included in your SQE2 results page.

A detailed flowchart showing the 8-step process for calculating SQE2 scores. It covers converting A-F grades to 0-5 marks, 50/50 weighting for skills and law, averaging 16 station percentages, and final rounding in step 8.

Key steps for calculating your percentage score

The Understanding what’s included in your SQE2 results page also contains a resource which shows in greater detail the eight key steps to calculate your final percentage results from your individual station scores.

This has been updated to include the new third Law criterion, but please note that this is an example only. The stations specifically assessing Ethics and Professional Conduct (Law 3 in the diagram below) will change in each assessment window.

The detailed 8 step process for calculating SQE2 percentage score and  has been updated to include the new third Law criterion

Detailed 8 step process for calculating SQE2 percentage score - click to enlarge

What further guidance will there be?

The changes only apply for candidates sitting SQE2 after 1 September 2026. Therefore candidates who took the April/May SQE2 or will take the July SQE2 will continue to see the current version of the results (i.e. they will not see the new breakdown). The existing format of SQE2 results and guidance will therefore still apply to those cohorts.

July SQE2 results are released in November 2026 and so to avoid any unnecessary confusion for those candidates, we will update the website to show the updated results information and guidance by the end of 2026, after the July SQE2 results have been released.

Have you passed the SQE?

Find out what happens after passing the SQE and admission to the roll of solicitors.

Learn more

SQE News

Stay up to date with SQE news and important announcements.

News Register for SQE news alerts

Register for the SQE?

Create your personal SQE account and book your assessments.

Register for SQE