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Census

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply. Letter from Stephen Penneck, Director General for Office for National Statistics, to Lord Laird, dated January 2010. As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent questions asking (a) why the term "mixed British" was not considered for use in the mixed/multiple ethnic groups' category in the ethnic group census question; and (b) what percentage of responses to national identity or ethnic group questions where "tick one" or "choose all" options were provided in the 2007 test census were incorrect or inadequate. (HL1060) (a) Research prior to the 2001 census showed that people who were not from "White" ethnic backgrounds but who were born and have been living in the UK for two or more generations want to acknowledge a British identity along with their ethnic group. Thus the "Black" and "Asian" groups incorporate "British" in their titles. However, it was not considered helpful to introduce the term "British" in the "Mixed/multiple" group as the category "Mixed British" could be interpreted as referring to a mix of White British identities, such as English/Scottish. (b) The instruction in the 2007 test ethnic group question was to "Choose one section from A to E, then tick the box to show your ethnic group". The percentage of responses that were incorrectly "multi-ticked" was 0.7 per cent. Following the evaluation of the 2007 test, the ethnic group instruction has been changed to "Choose one section from A to E, then tick one box to best describe your ethnic group or background". In the national identity question where the instruction was to "Tick all boxes that apply" the percentage of those who multi-ticked was 9.9 per cent. Both the national identity and ethnic group questions are relatively subjective and, as such, there is no measure of "incorrect" response to the 2007 test. The proportions of respondents who did not answer these questions in the 2007 test were 1.8 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively. Further information on the evaluation of the 2007 test is available on the website http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-project/2007-test/index.html.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

1060; 716 c156-7WA

Session

2009-10

Related items

Census
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Written questions
House of Lords

Subjects

Census Ethnic groups

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk