Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the response from Marcus Bell, Director, Race Disparity Audit, on 7 February 2018 to Q143 from the Women and Equalities Committee Oral Evidence: Race Disparity Audit, HC 5462, that none of the reasons given means that going forward there is nothing that can be done, what steps his Department is taking to include Gypsy, Roma and Travellers in the Race Disparity Audit data.

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.