Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether data recorded by the department classifies (a) Sikhs and (b) Jews as religious or ethnic groups.

As is usual practice for public bodies, the data recorded by this department is in line with the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) harmonised standard and therefore classifies Sikhs and Jews as religious groups.

The ONS current harmonised standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group. The ONS, which produces official statistics independently, launched a consultation to gather views on whether additional response options should be included in a future version of the ethnicity standard. This consultation has now closed, and the responses will be considered carefully.