Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish correspondence between Harold Wilson and Edward Heath about the Dhofar war which is due to be released this year.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The file containing these records was reviewed recently and it was concluded that, owing to their continuing sensitivity, they should remain closed for a further 10 years in accordance with the provisions of the Public Records Act 1958.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) departments, and (2) other publicly-funded bodies, categorise Gypsies, Travellers and Roma as “white minority ethnic groups” for statistical and reporting purposes, rather than designating them either as “white British” or “minority ethnic”.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
Baroness Whitaker
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
22 September 2021
Dear Baroness Whitaker,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what steps have been taken to ensure that departments, and other publicly-funded bodies, categorise Gypsies, Travellers and Roma as ‘white minority ethnic groups’ for statistical and reporting purposes, rather than designating them either as ‘white British’ or ‘minority ethnic’ (HL2813).
A core principle of the UK Statistics Authority’s strategy Statistics for the Public Good[1] is inclusivity. I can assure you that we are taking steps towards ensuring our statistics reflect the experiences of everyone in our society so that everyone counts and is counted, and that no one is forgotten.
Following consultation, research, and testing by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), a new ‘Roma’ response option was added to the ethnic group question within the higher-level ‘White’ category for Census 2021 for England and Wales[2]. This was in addition to the ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’ response option, which has been included since the 2011 Census[3].
Our Census 2021 output and analysis plans[4] include separate tailored analysis on both the Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities and the Roma communities in England and Wales. As part of developing this analysis we are engaging with Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller community organisations, as well as other government and expert users, to better understand the data and analysis needs around these communities.
The GSS (Government Statistical Service) harmonised standards set out how to collect and report statistics to ensure comparability across different data collections in Government. For ethnicity[5], we suggest reporting with greater granularity, which has been recommended by the Minister for Equalities (‘Departments and other agencies should publish a statement on GOV.UK outlining their plans to move their data collections to the Government Statistical Service’s (GSS) harmonised ethnicity data standard’.[6]) Over the past 12 months these standards have been adopted as the GDS’s (Government Digital Service) design pattern[7] for equalities information, meaning that Government digital services collecting administrative information are recommended to adopt these standards.
In addition, the GSS Harmonisation Champions Network[8], which includes representatives from all departments across Government which publish National Statistics, also encourage their departments to adopt these harmonised standards.
Finally, I’d like to highlight the work of the Inclusive Data Taskforce (IDTF), a group of senior academics and civil society leaders with expertise on a range of equalities topics and research methods. In October 2020, I commissioned this group to develop recommendations on how to make a step-change in the inclusivity of UK data and evidence in a broad range of areas, including ethnicity. Their recommendations will be launched on 28 September and will form the basis of a programme of work to be taken forward across government and more widely to radically improve the UK’s inclusive data infrastructure, including in relation to different ethnic groups.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[1] https://uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/statistics-for-the-public-good/
[5] https://gss.civilservice.gov.uk/policy-store/ethnicity/
[7] https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/equality-information/
[8] https://gss.civilservice.gov.uk/about-us/champion-networks/harmonisation-champions/
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the next census in England and Wales will separate Gypsies and Travellers into two categories.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why, in the Race Disparity Audit published on 10 October, they have not included information on housing, including permanent and transit sites, as well as unscheduled tenure, employment, social capital, income, and crime and policing, in respect of Gypsies and Irish Travellers.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
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.
The website includes education, health and some housing data about Gypsies and Irish Travellers. It does not currently include information about permanent and transit sites, as well as unscheduled tenure, employment, social capital, income, and crime and policing for this group.
In relation to information on Gypsies and Irish Travellers, Government collects and reports data using a number of different ethnic group classifications.
The Department of Education collects information about Travellers of Irish Heritage and Gypsy/Roma separately whereas many other departments use the 2011 ethnic group Census classification which is Gypsy, Traveller or Irish Traveller. The Government will continue to add more data and update existing data on the website.
In many cases where survey data has been collected using the 2011 ethnic group Census classification, the number of Gypsy, Traveller or Irish Travellers interviewed is very small (eg English Housing Survey and Crime Survey for England and Wales). These statistics have not been provided as they are not reliable and in some cases could potentially disclose personal information about individuals.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 14 August 2014 (HL1625), how many young people from the Gypsy and Traveller communities have benefited from the Youth Engagement Fund.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The Youth Engagement Fund aims to support the most disadvantaged young people in society who are at risk of becoming long term NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training). The Fund is being awarded through a competitive bidding process over two stages and we expect to announce the winning bidders in the coming weeks. Programmes will start delivering support to disadvantaged young people soon afterwards.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the number of young people from the gypsy and traveller communities not in education, training or employment, what steps they are taking to ensure that the Youth Engagement Fund will benefit people from those communities.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The £16m cross-government Youth Engagement Fund aims to support up to 18,000 of the most disadvantaged young people in England to improve their educational achievement, increase their employability and reduce their risk of offending. This includes young people from the gypsy and traveller communities. The Fund does not prescribe which particular groups of young people bidders should work with.