Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the NHS Data Model and Dictionary will include entries for (1) Gypsies, (2) Travellers, and (3) Roma; and if so, when.

The Department is in the process of reviewing the collection of data within the National Health Service and has commissioned NHS England to complete a scoping exercise to understand how information on protected characteristics is gathered in existing NHS datasets, including the NHS Data Model and Dictionary which currently use the 2001 census ethnicity categories. Subject to the publication of the 2021 Census White Paper, we plan to complete an initial assessment by the end of 2018, which will form the basis for future decision-making on NHS data collection.