Guidance

Collecting ethnicity data

Updated 26 May 2023

1. Who counts as an employee

We recommend that any employer wanting to calculate their ethnicity pay data should follow the gender pay gap guidance on who counts as an employee. This guidance covers:

• employers with multiple payrolls
• overseas workers and international jobs
• if your employer is part of a group
• employees working part-time, job-sharing and employees on leave
• self-employed people
• partners
• agency workers
• apprentices, seasonal, temporary or casual employees, zero-hours workers

2. Collecting employee ethnicity data

Collecting data on employee ethnicity can be complex and should always be approached with sensitivity and transparency. Employers are encouraged to devote time and resources to this part and to seek expert advice as needed.

The best way for employers to collect ethnicity data is to ask employees to report their own ethnicity, but always with an option to opt-out of answering, such as ‘prefer not to say’.

The Race Disparity Unit provides guidance on collecting ethnicity data which is relevant to any employer who wants to analyse their ethnicity pay. This guidance recommends using the Government Statistical Service (GSS) harmonised standards for collecting someone’s ethnicity.

Using the harmonised standards can help:

• ensure comparability across different data collections produced by the government and other employers that use harmonised categories
• derive more useful statistics that give people a greater level of understanding
• employers be consistent with their calculations in different time periods

They also provide a ready-to-use set of tested and legally sound questions.

For consistency, it is recommended that you use the questions from the:

• 2021 Census for England and Wales
• current ethnicity harmonised standard for Northern Ireland
• 2022 Census for Scotland (2022 Census for Scotland ethnic group: guidance)

We recommend that you use detailed ethnicity classifications wherever possible.

For England and Wales, the categories are:

White

• English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British
• Irish
• Gypsy or Irish Traveller
• Roma
• any other white background

Mixed or multiple ethnic groups

• white and black Caribbean
• white and black African
• white and Asian
• any other mixed or multiple ethnic background

Asian or Asian British

• Indian
• Pakistani
• Bangladeshi
• Chinese
• any other Asian background

Black, black British, Caribbean or African

• Caribbean
• African
• any other black, black British, or Caribbean background

Other ethnic group

• Arab
• any other ethnic group

Prefer not to say (for employees who do not wish to disclose their ethnicity).

(In Wales, ‘Welsh’ is the first option in the white category.)

As this list is used in the Census and many other government and non-government data collections, employees will probably be reasonably familiar with the categories.

Please note that as different countries within the UK have specific requirements from their ethnicity data, the format of the question varies slightly depending on whether data is collected in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. It is therefore recommended that the harmonised country-specific approaches are used where possible.

It is recognised that in some cases employers will not have the resources required to ask different questions in different countries. In the case of Great Britain (GB) or UK-wide data collections that do not have the resources to implement the country-specific approaches, the approach for England or Wales can be used in Scotland. For Northern Ireland, the specific requirements comply with the Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement).

To help comparison at a UK level, the harmonised standards also allow for GB and UK level outputs, More information is available on the GSS Harmonisation web page.

The ethnic groups should be presented as a list where employees can tick only one option. Employees who do not want to disclose their ethnicity should have the option of ticking ‘prefer not to say’, or not answering at all by not ticking any of the boxes.

3. Complying with General Data Protection Rules (GDPR)

Most employers already hold a record of their employees’ gender for a variety of reasons, such as eligibility for maternity leave. It is less common for employers to hold a record of their employees’ ethnicity as there is currently no statutory requirement to do this. An employee’s ethnicity is regarded as special category data under GDPR according to the Information Commissioner’s Office. This means that employers must make sure their employees are aware of the following points before they ask them to disclose their ethnicity:

• a description of how you will use the ethnicity data they provide you
• a description of how you will keep their disclosed ethnicity data safe and secure including how you will ensure no individual can be identified from any data or analysis you choose to publish

Employers should familiarise themselves with the full guidance on how to collect special category data on the Information Commissioner’s website to ensure that they fulfil the legal requirements.