Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why, in the original guidance on the national schools census, schools were asked to collect or ascribe information on the ethnicity of children.

The DfE has been collecting data about pupils attending schools in England through the School Census for over ten years.

The data is collected termly and supports a number of DfE’s strategic objectives. It is widely used by DfE for the purpose of improving, and promoting, the education or well-being of all pupils in England. For example, data on disadvantaged or special educational needs pupils enable the department to target support to where it is needed most.

Ethnic background data is regarded as sensitive personal data. Parents and pupils have always had the right to refuse to provide this information. From 2011, if a parent or pupil refused to provide this information, schools should record “refused” in their systems rather than recording an ethnic background for that pupil. Up to 2010 the ethnic monitoring guidance provided by the Department permitted the ascription of ethnicity by schools where certain safeguards were met. In 2011 the ability for schools to ascribe the ethnicity for pupils was removed from the guidance.