Only a sixth of senior doctors and one in ten leading barristers were educated at comprehensive schools, an analysis has found.

Access to prestigious jobs has barely improved in a generation, with the proportion of privately educated professionals changing only marginally since the 1980s, according to the Sutton Trust, the education charity.

Nationally, 88 per cent of people went to comprehensive schools, 5 per cent to grammars and 7 per cent to independent schools. Yet the top ranks of law, medicine, business, politics, the military, the civil service, journalism and acting are dominated by the privately and selectively educated.

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Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: “While private school and Oxbridge students often have higher academic achievement, it is not just grades that determine future career success. These students often have the social skills and advantages . . . that precipitate career success.”

Read his full report here (£)

See also his inside paper coverage Those old school ties still matter for judges, doctors . . . and actors (£)

The report was also mentioned in the Times leader Empowering the North (£)