Table of Contents
Gathering equalities information:
When completing equality impact assessments, officers need to provide evidence of impact by equality group. To do this, you must be able to segment your data by protected characteristic. In turn, if you carry out any kind of consultation or engagement, you must ask questions to gather this information.
To help you, and to ensure the council is consistent in its approach, we have developed this guidance, along with a set of set of questions (Appendix 1).
How to use this guidance
This guidance is divided into guidance and an appendix (Appendix 1).
The guidance:
- Explains in more detail why we collect equality information.
- Gives advice around how the gathering of equality information relates to questionnaire design.
- Looks at the questions which can be used to gather equality information. It explains why questions are asked in certain ways and makes suggestions for how you can adapt them if necessary.
We have provided guidance on how to ask questions relating specifically to the protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act (2010). These are:
- Gender reassignment.
- Being married or in a civil partnership.
- Being pregnant or on maternity leave.
- Race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin.
- Religion or belief.
- Sexual orientation.
We have also included suggestions for questions you may want to ask around language, caring responsibilities, and living arrangements.
Appendix 1 is a list of questions which you can cut and paste into questionnaires or surveys. As you will see, we have not included questions relating to all protected characteristics in this question set. (Marital status and pregnancy and maternity have been left out.)
While this question set is not prescriptive for reasons explained within the guidance, Appendix 1 gives the minimum recommended requirements when gathering equalities information. If you are doing less than this, you should ask yourself why and be prepared to justify your choice.
Why we collect equality information
We collect this information for a variety of purposes including:
- Being able to monitor who has responded to engagement activities to ensure all groups’ opinions and needs are captured and taken into account when making decisions.
- Helping us to understand the needs of different equalities groups and ensure we accurately reflect the needs of groups in our equality impact assessments.
- Being able to compare the results of one engagement activity with others so we can check the consistency of results.
- To help us to combine information from multiple sources to enable better comparisons to be made with ourselves, with official statistics, and with other organisations.
Gathering equality information within surveys and questionnaires
Questions about personal information, including equality characteristics, are usually asked at the end of the questionnaire rather than at the beginning. It is better to get a partially completed survey than no survey at all. If someone sees these questions at the beginning of the survey and doesn’t want to answer, they won’t complete anything. If they complete the ‘business’ part of the survey, then decide not to answer the equalities questions, at least you’ve got some data.
You should only ask personal questions at the beginning of the survey if they are being used to identify people qualified to be a respondent and to filter out people you do not want to answer.
You should always explain that answering equality questions is voluntary, but if respondents do provide the information, it will help us to understand the experiences of different groups.
If you are collecting equalities information as part of a survey/questionnaire, you can set up the survey in such a way as to ask the questions specific to your survey/consultation, then ask respondents whether they would be willing to give some information about themselves. If you are using survey software (including MS Forms) you can set up this format using branching questions.
Using branching questions within the equality questions themselves can reduce the length of a questionnaire considerably, at least as far as respondents are concerned. They will only see the questions they need to answer, not the full question set. As a general rule, a shorter questionnaire is likely to achieve better response rates.
Remember:
- You should include an explanation of why you are asking these questions.
- You must include privacy statements as required by council policy.
- For more information about privacy, contact protection@argyll-bute.gov.uk.
About the questions we recommend
The questions in Appendix 1 have been influenced by a number of sources. These include examples provided by other local authorities, Census questions and categories, and ACAS. Development of this guidance and the question set has also been aided by consultation with colleagues from Community Development, members of the council’s Equality Forum, and the council’s Community Engagement Strategy Group.
Where categories used in Scotland differ from those used in England and Wales, the Scottish categories have been adopted; this applies to ethnicity and religion questions.
While we recommend you use the questions in Appendix 1, we are not mandating them because:
- We need to be proportionate in our approaches to gathering information. If you have a very short questionnaire, respondents will find it unreasonable if you ask more personal questions than there are questions in the main body of your survey.
- There may be circumstances where you want to add or remove certain questions, for example if you are focusing on a particular group you already know a great deal about. If you are carrying out a survey directed specifically at a particular group you work with, you may not need to ask a question which identifies whether a respondent belongs to that particular group.
- There may be occasions when you want to extend the question categories or probe for deeper information to further segment the groups you are looking at.
- Questions around language, national identity, pregnancy and maternity, marital status, caring responsibilities, or living arrangements may be relevant to the topic you are investigating. We have not included these in the recommended question list, but we have included them in the discussion section of this guidance.
Asking equalities questions
Asking about age:
There are two ways councils are doing this. The first is to ask about age at last birthday.
The second is to ask the question using age bands / cohorts.
There are standardised age cohorts which should be used where possible. These align with how statistics are reported elsewhere; this enables comparisons to be made with other data sets.
Example Questions:
What was your age last birthday?
or
What is your age? (Please tick one box)
- 15 and under
- 16-24
- 25-39
- 40-49
- 50-64
- 65+
The latter is an example only. Depending on the survey, different age ranges may be preferred; however, the key point is age bands should end with a 4 or 9 and start with a 5 or 0. Clearly the 16-24 group, which better reflects with the end of compulsory education, breaks with the convention!
If you are engaging with children / young people, you will need to give some thought about how you are going to capture the relevant information and which age groups are appropriate to use. You may wish to differentiate between primary and secondary age children, for example, or something else.
You should bear in mind that we have a statutory obligation to consider the views of children and young people (UNCRC Article 12) in all matters that affect them. Children’s Rights Training is available to enable you to make informed decisions around this. To help us fulfil our obligation, Children Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIAs) have been integrated into our wider Equality and Socio-Economic Impact Assessment process.
Asking about sex and gender:
There are two protected characteristics which relate to sex and gender. The first is ‘sex’ (male or female). The second relates to whether a person has a trans identity.
Issues around sex and gender and the use of language has become increasingly sensitive over recent years. Care should be taken not to confuse sex and gender.
There are a couple of ways these questions could be approached.
The first is to ask two separate questions:
- What is your sex? Male / Female / Prefer not to say
- Do you consider yourself to be trans, or have a trans history?
- Yes
- No
- Prefer not to say
An alternative is to ask a question explicitly about gender.
You may want to do this because, if you only ask about sex as a binary, you run the risk of excluding or alienating people with a trans identity, particularly where someone identifies as non-binary or agender. However, by doing this, you run the risk of upsetting individuals with gender critical beliefs.
For this reason, you should think carefully about why you are you asking the question. Do you want to know about biological sex, or about someone’s lived experience, how they seem themselves, and how they interact with society more widely?
If the former, then the binary male/female may suffice. If the latter, consider asking:
What is your gender?
- Man
- Woman
- Other
- Prefer not to say
Asking about marital status:
The Equality Act (2010) is concerned with, and the Census asks about, legal categories, but you might be more interested in practical living arrangements.
When choosing the question you want to use, you need to think about why the information matters to you, and which will be of most value.
Example questions:
What is your legal marital or registered civil partnership status?
- Never married and never registered in a civil partnership
- Married
- In a registered civil partnership
- Separated, but still legally married
- Separated, but still legally in a civil partnership
- Divorced
- Formerly in a civil partnership which is now legally dissolved
- Widowed
- Surviving partner from a civil partnership
Or:
Which of the following best describes your current relationship status?
- Single
- Separated
- Divorced / dissolved civil partnership
- Widowed
- Living with a partner
- Married / in a civil partnership.
Asking about pregnancy and maternity
In common with a number of other local authorities, we have not included a question about the protected characteristic of pregnancy and maternity in the questions in Appendix 1.
If you do want to ask about pregnancy and maternity, you may consider using the following question.
Are you pregnant or have you had a child in the last 6 months?
- Yes
- No
- Prefer not to say
Asking about disability:
The most straightforward way to ask about disability is:
Do you have a disability?
- Yes
- No
- Prefer not to answer
You may wish to include a definition of disability: a condition which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.
However, this lacks nuance as it tells you nothing about the nature of the disability, and disability is not a monolith. Depending on what you are proposing or working on, you may wish to have gather information. If it is relevant to know more about the disabilities people have, a follow up question can be asked:
Do you have any of the following, which have lasted, or which you expect to last, for 12 months or longer?
- Deafness or partial hearing loss
- Blindness or partial hearing loss
- Full or partial loss of voice or difficulty speaking (a condition that requires you to use equipment to speak)
- Learning disability (a condition that you have had since childhood that affects the way you learn, understand and communicate)
- Learning difficulty (a specific learning condition that affects the way you learn and process information)
- Developmental disorder (a condition that you have had since childhood which affects motor, cognitive, social and emotional skills and speech and language)
- Physical disability (a condition that substantially limits one or more basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, lifting or carrying)
- Mental health condition (a condition that affects your emotional, physical and mental wellbeing)
- Long-term illness, disease or condition (a condition, not listed above, that you may have for life, which may be managed with treatment or medication)
- Other condition, please write in:
- No condition
- Prefer not to say.
Asking about ethnicity:
If we ask about the full suite of ethnicity categories, there are a lot of questions, even where branching is used in a questionnaire. Would you collect enough information by asking the high-level categories only (the ones associated with the letters A-F)?
Because we don’t have a very ethnically diverse population in our area, you may end up grouping categories together for the purposes of reporting. So, you could consider asking questions using the higher-level categories only (A: White, B: Mixed or multiple ethnic groups, and so on). Having said that, there is debate about how to group white ethnic minority groups and whether they should be grouped with ‘White’ or with ‘Black and Minority Ethnic’.
The usual question set about ethnicity is:
What is your ethnic group?
A White
- Scottish
- Other British
- Irish
- Polish
- Gypsy/Traveller
- Roma
- Showman/Showwoman
- Other white ethnic group, please write in
B Mixed or multiple ethnic groups
- Any mixed or multiple ethnic groups, please write in
C Asian, Scottish Asian or British Asian
- Pakistani, Scottish Pakistani or British Pakistani
- Indian, Scottish Indian or British Indian
- Bangladeshi, Scottish Bangladeshi or British Bangladeshi
- Chinese, Scottish Chinese or British Chinese
- Other, please write in
D African, Scottish African or British African
- Please write in (for example, NIGERIAN, SOMALI)
E Caribbean or Black
- Please write in (for example, SCOTTISH CARIBBEAN, BLACK SCOTTISH)
F Other ethnic group
Arab, Scottish Arab or British Arab
Other, please write in (for example, SIKH, JEWISH)
It is worth noting that some people object to the ‘other British’ wording. However, this is the wording adopted by Scottish Government and used in the Census.
Asking about national identity:
A question about national identity was first asked in Scotland’s Census in 2011. Unlike the religion or ethnicity question, this was, and continues to be, a ‘tick all that apply’ question.
What do you feel is your national identity? (Tick all that apply)
- Scottish
- English
- Northern Irish
- Welsh
- British
- Other, please write in
Depending on what the information will be used for, ‘other’ on its own may be sufficient. Note there is overlap between this and the ethnicity question.
Do you need to ask this? Will it add anything to the information you are collecting?
We have not included a question around national identity in the question set in Appendix 1.
Asking about religion:
Religion is covered by the protected characteristic of ‘religion and belief’.
This characteristic covers any religious or philosophical belief, including a lack of belief. A belief must affect how a person lives their life or perceives the world.
For a philosophical belief to be protected under the Act it must:
- be genuinely held
- be a belief and not just an opinion or viewpoint based on the present state of
- information available
- be about a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour
- attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance, and
- be worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with fundamental rights of others. For example, Holocaust denial, or the belief in racial superiority are not protected. Beliefs such as humanism, pacifism, vegetarianism and the belief in man-made climate change are all protected.
While philosophical beliefs are protected under the law, these are not reflected in the standard question about religion, which is as follows:
What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?
- None
- Church of Scotland
- Roman Catholic
- Other Christian (please write in)
- Muslim, write in denomination or school
- Hindu
- Buddhist
- Sikh
- Jewish
- Pagan
- Another religion or body, please write in
- Prefer not to say
Asking about sexual orientation:
The Equality Act (2010) describes sexual orientation as being: heterosexual, gay, lesbian or bisexual. However, the world has moved on since the Act came into force, with other identities increasingly being talked about. As a result, the question in the Scottish 2022 Census included the following categories: Straight/Heterosexual; Gay or Lesbian; Bisexual; Other sexual orientation, please write in.
On that basis, we suggest using something along the following lines:
Which of the following options best describes how you think of yourself?
- Heterosexual/straight
- Bisexual
- Gay or Lesbian
- Other
- Prefer not to answer
While it might be interesting to know what people mean by ‘other’, the numbers are going to be small enough it’s probably not worth including a ‘write in category’. Having said that, people who identify with some of the identities which fall into this category often welcome the opportunity to articulate them.
Some other questions you may wish to ask:
Asking about caring responsibilities:
When asking about caring responsibilities, it is useful to distinguish between dependent children without a disability and other kinds of caring responsibilities. The latter may tie in with the protected characteristic of disability.
Example question:
Do you have caring responsibilities? (Tick all that apply.)
- None
- Primary carer of a child/children (under 18)
- Primary carer of disabled child/children
- Primary carer of disabled adult (18 and over)
- Primary carer of older person
- Secondary carer (another person carries out the main caring role)
- Prefer not to say
Asking about language:
Here are a couple of examples of how to ask about languages.
Example 1:
Do you use [Insert language here, for example, British Sign Language (BSL) or Gaelic]?
- Yes
- No
- If yes, is it your main language?
- Prefer not to say
Example 2:
Do you speak [Insert language here, for example, British Sign Language (BSL) or Gaelic]
- Yes
- No
- Prefer not to answer