Down from 53% in January
Less than half of candidates have passed the latest sitting of the first part of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE1), new figures show.
According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) latest statistical report, 42% of candidates who sat both parts of SQE1 in July achieved a pass. This marks a drop from the 53% pass rate recorded in January, although it’s up just one percentage point up on the record low of 41% seen in July 2025.
First-time sitters fared slightly better, with 47% passing overall, up from 46% in July last year. A total of 6,315 candidates completed both parts of SQE1 in the latest sitting, including 5,012 first-time sitters and 1,303 candidates re-sitting one or both parts of the assessment.
In a press release accompanying the results, the SRA said January pass rates have been around 10–15 percentage points higher than July’s over the past three years, pointing to differences in candidates’ training routes and the higher proportion of re-sitters in July.
Candidates must pass both of SQE1’s two papers, Functioning Legal Knowledge 1 and 2, to pass the assessment overall. In the July sitting, both FLK1 and FLK2 recorded pass rates of 50% across all candidates.
The July cohort also contained the highest proportion of re-sitting candidates recorded for an SQE1 sitting, with 23.4% of FLK1 candidates and 27.8% of FLK2 candidates re-sitting. The SRA noted that re-sitters tend to achieve lower pass rates than first-time candidates.
The SRA stressed that there is no pre-determined pass mark for SQE1, with the threshold set independently for each paper to account for differences in difficulty. It said the standard candidates are required to meet remains the same for every sitting.
The latest results come shortly after the SRA announced minor changes to the assessment, including trimming the number of SQE1 questions following complaints from students that the exam felt “rushed”.
