Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her department records data on (a) Sikhs and (b) Jews as ethnic or religious data.

The Home Office collects ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The current harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions used across the UK; those questions were updated for the 2021 and 2022 Censuses. The current standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group.

The ONS is reviewing the harmonised standard to ensure this remains appropriate and meets the needs of both data users and respondents. This will include a public consultation, which concluded on 4^th February.

We await the outcome of this review.