Birmingham MP urges law change to stop Sikhs and Jews being 'invisible' to policymakers
Preet Kaur Gill introduced a Bill to Parliament today
A law change is needed to prevent Sikhs and Jewish people continuing to be "invisible" to policymakers, according to a Birmingham MP.
Edgbaston MP Preet Kaur Gill proposed a Bill to address a "fundamental absurdity in the fight against discrimination and inequality" by requiring ethnicity data on Sikhs and Jews to be collected.
The Labour MP wants public bodies which collect data about ethnicity for the purpose of delivering public services to include specific "Sikh" and "Jewish" categories as options for a person's ethnic group.
Ms Gill noted religious data is collected by public bodies but said this is "poor, patchy and incomplete" and is "never used" to make decisions on delivering services.
Ms Gill, moving her Public Body Ethnicity Data (Inclusion of Jewish and Sikh Categories) Bill, told the Commons: "Jews and Sikhs are in the unique position of being considered both ethnic and religious groups under the Equality Act 2010.
"Sikhs and Jews have been legally recognised as ethnic groups for over 40 years since the Mandla v Dowell Lee case in 1983.
"The Bill would address a fundamental absurdity in the fight against discrimination and inequality that we do not collect ethnicity data on Sikhs and Jews since laws on racial discrimination were first introduced nearly 60 years ago.
"The Women and Equalities Select Committee was told in February 2018 that the Government's race disparity audit had identified around 340 data sets across government but found no data on Sikhs.
"The only data collected on Sikhs and Jews in most recent years is religious data. However, the quality of data collected by public bodies on religion compared to ethnicity is poor, patchy and incomplete.
"Religion data is never used by public bodies to make decisions for the purposes of delivering public services - it makes both Jews and Sikhs invisible to policymakers, therefore ignoring the inequality and discrimination both groups face.
"That is why specific Jewish and Sikh ethnic categories are needed and that is what this Bill will do.
"This is a campaign to end the discrimination both communities face."
Ms Gill asked for her Bill to be given a second reading on March 7 next year.
It faces a battle to become law due to a lack of parliamentary time to consider private members' bills.