Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she is taking steps to implement the 18+1 ethnicity monitoring system for data collection across Government for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

The Cabinet Office’s Equality Hub encourages the use of Government Statistical Service harmonised standards for ethnicity data collection across government departments and other public bodies.

The current ethnicity harmonised standard is based on the 2011 Census questions across the UK. The ethnicity questions were adjusted so they could be used in the 2021 censuses for England and Wales, and Northern Ireland; and the 2022 Census for Scotland.

This means that the 2021 and 2022 census questions are, currently, the most up to date way of collecting data about ethnic groups.

The classification for England and Wales has 19 groups including the categories ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’ and ‘Roma’ (https://analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk/policy-store/ethnicity-harmonised-standard).