Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2018 to Question 134113, what progress (a) his Department and (b) the Race Disparity Inter-ministerial Group has made to ensure that government departments not currently collecting data based on the 2011 census classification for Gypsy Roma or Traveller start using those classifications.

The ethnicity data published on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website includes data from the Census, published official statistics, numerous Government surveys and Departments’ own administrative records.

Currently, the website has 48 measures (web pages) that present data using the detailed classification of ethnicity developed for the 2011 Census, which includes Irish Traveller and Gypsy/Roma Travellers (GRT). However, figures for the GRT ethnic group in some of these measures were suppressed for reasons of confidentiality protection and/or because the numbers were too small to enable robust estimates to be produced.

We continue to work with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Government Departments to identify methods to improve ethnicity data collection, consistency and how best to address data gaps for ethnic groups including GRT.