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Punjabi Community in Britain

I thank my hon. Friend for correcting me. I meant to thank the Guru Nanak school in Hayes for its contribution not only to the Punjabi community, but to the whole of the United Kingdom. In a previous ministerial life, I was involved in the 2011 census as the Minister responsible for equality. I know that there is a long-standing lobby for the Sikh group, along with other groups, to be given a dedicated tick-box in the ethnic category question of the census. As Members know, the Office for National Statistics consulted widely on the content of the census in 2006 and 2007. At the end of that process, it decided for financial and continuity purposes that the number of dedicated options had to be limited. Although it introduced two new categories, neither of those was Sikh. However, the ONS has said that when a person filling in a census form does not feel that their ethnicity is appropriately described by a tick-box answer, they can write it in the space provided on the form. The questionnaire also gives people the space to record their religion in the same way. As my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington requested, I will make further representations to the ONS on the subject on behalf of the all-party group, but I fear that we are probably too late to make much difference.