Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing specific (a) Sikh and (b) Jewish options for a person’s ethnic group in data collection conducted by his Department.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) adheres to the guidance provided by Civil Service Statistics which records Sikh and Jewish under the classification of religion. The MOD’s Biannual Diversity statistics are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-index

Public bodies usually collect ethnicity data in line with the ethnicity harmonised standard, which is developed by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). The current harmonised ethnicity 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 later this year and we await the outcome of this review.