One has to feel some sympathy for the Solicitors Regulation Authority in connection with its efforts to respond to concerns about diversity.

Only one in 10 practitioners has bothered to respond to its online diversity questionnaire in the last three months. At this rate it should get responses from all practitioners some time around June 2011.

Apart from emailing questionnaires, the regulator now plans on sending them by post – no doubt at considerable cost.

Solicitors are not alone in their reluctance to engage with exercises such as this, of course. Baroness Margaret Prosser admitted, for example, that there is an ‘unfortunate reluctance’ among some senior judges to respond to similar monitoring forms.

Unfortunately, when many people hear or see the word ‘diversity’ they start to bridle, possibly because of reservations about so-called ‘political correctness’, whatever that means (it is an extremely elastic term).

However, as Lord Ouseley told me this week, this is ‘not about kicking out the whites or kicking out the man’ but understanding information. And if this information can be used to help the SRA monitor and improve its processes and procedures, then that can only be a good thing.

The results may even show what a diverse profession this is, ahead of many other professions and industries.

The SRA is trying to do the right thing. It deserves a little more help along the way.