Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to ensure that the categorisations used by her Department for collecting data on the ethnicity of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma people are consistent with those used by the Office of National Statistics.

The Department follows the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and Government Statistical Service (GSS) harmonised standards for collecting and/or presenting statistics. More details about codes, along with information on how the codes were chosen, is available at: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/ethnic-groups.

The ONS lead cross Government work to harmonise data, including on ethnicity. The Department continues to be part of this ongoing work and will look to introduce any recommendations when they are made. Further information is available at: https://analysisfunction.civilservice.gov.uk/policy-store/gss-harmonisation-team-workplan/#ethnicity.