For as long as I can remember, the Law Society has tried to collect diversity data from me, as an individual, and my response has always been the same. Mind your own business. Now the Legal Services Board is to require regulators to ensure firms collect information on their staff.

I have told staff that, at the head of any list of questions will be the following statement and box to tick, should they wish to do so: ‘I decline to answer this questionnaire as it is an intrusion into my privacy. I object to my employer collecting such data, still less holding it, and I absolutely refuse my consent to do so. This declaration may be disclosed to the Legal Services Board and/or the Solicitors Regulation Authority, so my employer can be seen to have complied with regulations imposed upon them.’

I am aware it is still believed by the powers that be that all solicitors are wealthy, male, white, went to Eton, are communicating members of the Church of England and are personal friends of Bertram Wooster and Sir Roderick Spode, but those of us who are in practice, and deal with other solicitors, know this isn't true.

This is a profession of lawyers, most of whom can read the Equality Act and its predecessors, and abide by it when selecting for employment.

Andrew Cohen, Woking