In 2020, there are only 17 black partners within the UK’s top eight accountancy firms. That is just 0.4% of the 4,266 partners within these firms.

Put another way, for every 250 partners within PwC, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, BDO, Grant Thornton, RSM and Mazars, there was just a single black partner.

At a time of growing concern over the representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people within the accountancy profession, the statistics do not make comfortable reading.

The only consolation is that this figure is an improvement on Accountancy Daily’s last survey, carried out in 2018. Two years ago, there were 12 black partners, an average of one and a half per firm.

The picture improves for those from an Asian heritage – 237 partners (5.5%) are Asian, with a further 36 (0.8%) minority ethnic partners. But with nearly 16% partners whose ethnicity is unknown, that leaves 77.5% who are white.