Review of Equality Statistics
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Research report: 1 Review of equality statistics Sylvia Walby, Jo Armstrong, Les Humphreys Lancaster University Review of equality statistics Sylvia Walby OBE AcSS FRSA UNESCO Chair in Gender Research Jo Armstrong PhD Department of Sociology Les Humphreys PhD Centre for Applied Statistics Lancaster University Equality and Human Rights Commission 2008 First published Autumn 2008 ISBN 978 1 84206 074 2 EHRC RESEARCH REPORT SERIES The EHRC Research Report Series publishes research carried out for the EHRC by commissioned researchers. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commission. The Commission is publishing the report as a contribution to discussion and debate. Please contact the Research Team for further information about other EHRC research reports, or visit our website: Research Team Equality and Human Rights Commission Arndale House Arndale Centre Manchester M4 3AQ Email: [email protected] Telephone: 0161 829 8500 Website: www.equalityhumanrights.com You can download a copy of this report as a PDF from our website: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/policyresearch/pages/default.aspx If you require this publication in an alternative format, please contact the Communications Team to discuss your needs at: [email protected] CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY iii PART ONE 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Aims and context 1 1.2 Topics and focus 1 1.3 Data resources and quality 4 1.4 Guide for specific users 5 1.5 Content of report 5 2. METHODOLOGY AND KEY CONCEPTS 6 2.1 Introduction 6 2.2 Defining key concepts 6 2.3 Criteria of quality of statistics 10 2.4 Review of existing and suggested indicators 14 2.5 Data resources: surveys, administrative data and indicator sets 19 3. EVALUATION: STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES 21 3.1 Introduction 21 3.2 Strands: availability, definitions, classifications, developments 21 3.3 Geographic areas 37 3.4 Technical aspects: gaps, rates and thresholds 39 3.5 Domains 41 4. CONCLUSIONS: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HEADLINE INDICATORS 60 4.1 Introduction 60 4.2 Potential headline indicators 62 4.3 Data needs to support proposed headline indicators 92 4.4 Technical appendix: definitions and data sources 96 PART TWO 5. KEY STATISTICS 100 5.1 Introduction 100 5.2 Index of key statistics 103 6. DATA RESOURCES 253 6.1 Introduction 253 6.2 List of data sources 256 6.3 Surveys 259 6.4 Administrative data sources 377 6.5 Indicator data sets 400 REFERENCES 419 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the many people who have contributed their expertise and time to this report. Brian Francis and Dave Lucy are thanked for their statistical support and advice. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) provided very helpful advice on drafts of the report, especially Jennifer Thomas who organised the responses of her colleagues, including Theodore Joloza, Nick Perkins, Rachel Skentelbery and those who work on the equality domains (disability; sexual identity; ethnicity; identity; language; and religion) and the ONS survey managers for the Expenditure and Food Survey, Integrated Household Survey (IHS), Labour Force Survey, English Housing Survey and Omnibus survey. Dave Perfect, our Research Manager at the EHRC, supported the project and provided excellent detailed assistance during the editing of the report. We would also like to thank the copy editor, Emma Wise, for her thorough editing of the report. The EHRC Project Management Team of Dave Perfect, Karen Hurrell and David Darton provided feedback on the interim report and draft final report. The participants in the Government Equalities Office (GEO) meeting (3 July 2008), led by Giovanni Razzu, provided helpful comments on the project. We had helpful written comments from: Arik Dondi and Stephen Hall (Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs); Lawrence Singer (Office of Criminal Justice Reform, Home Office); Amanda Tuke (Deputy Director, ONS); and Karen Lucas (Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Westminster). We were assisted in Scottish matters by comments from Sara Grainger who also organised responses from her colleagues in Scottish Government; and in Welsh matters by Steven Marshall, Jessica McQuade, Martin Parry and colleagues from the Welsh Assembly Government. We were assisted in accessing data by Liz Kelly and Jo Lovett (Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University), Eileen Maitland (Rape Crisis Scotland), Marianne Hester and Emma Williamson (Violence Against Women Research Group, University of Bristol), and Karen Hawkes (General Register Office for Scotland). Also, thanks to Paul Iganksi for his advice on hate crime data. i ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) commissioned this review as part of its remit to map the equalities landscape across England, Scotland and Wales. The report examines the extent to which data are available for the following equality strands: sex; ethnicity / race; disability; religion or belief; age; sexual orientation; and also for socio-economic status (social class). The extent to which statistics are available at different levels of geographic classification (UK, GB, England, Scotland and Wales and regional and local areas within this) is investigated. The report addresses the ten domains of equality identified in the equality measurement framework in the Equalities Review.1 These are: Longevity Physical security Health Education Standard of living Productive and valued activities Individual, family and social life Participation, influence and voice Identity, expression and self-respect Legal security 1 The Equalities Review was commissioned by the Cabinet Office to: provide an understanding of the long-term and underlying causes of disadvantage that need to be addressed by public policy; make practical recommendations on key policy priorities for a range of organisations; and inform both the modernisation of equality legislation, towards a Single Equality Act; and to develop the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Its findings were presented to the Prime Minister in 2007 (Equalities Review, 2007d). iii REVIEW OF EQUALITY STATISTICS METHODOLOGY Four sources of information were used in this review: A review of work on statistics and indicators relevant to equality produced by government departments and bodies, the legacy (equality) Commissions, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the devolved administrations, policy organisations, academics, the European Commission and other individuals and organisations. A systematic analysis of 34 national surveys and 12 administrative data sources to assess the extent to which they provide equality data. This included examining their content, size, sample design, frequency, strand availability and geographic area. The number and percentage of respondents from each equality strand are calculated and the wording of relevant questions provided. A review of 12 existing indicator sets on diverse aspects of well-being and policy performance, which include measures relevant to equality, produced by government departments and bodies and by policy organisations. Consultation with the ONS (including their heads of equality domains and managers of major surveys), relevant government departments, devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, academic and other experts, through meetings (including one organised by the Government Equalities Office) and comments on the interim and draft final reports. KEY FINDINGS Coverage of equality strands Sex Most, but not all, of the key statistics and indictors are available disaggregated by sex. The main exceptions found were in the dimensions of physical and legal security, where recorded crime statistics, which use official crime categories, do not include the sex of the victim; nor is „domestic violence‟ a crime category. The development of information systems on crime against women and minorities is proceeding, but is far from complete. The use of the household as an alternative (rather than in addition) to the individual as the unit in some data sources and the use of a „household reference person‟ as the source of data can have the consequence of making gender invisible. iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ethnicity / race The Census (England and Wales) categorisation of ethnic groups is widely treated as authoritative for survey and administrative data. The largest challenge in the use of ethnicity data is the small sizes of some of the groups, which mean that survey samples cannot be meaningfully disaggregated into these 16 categories, since the findings would not be statistically robust. There are various technical ways of addressing this, but each has disadvantages. These include: grouping together (or aggregating) some ethnic categories, but with the loss of potentially important distinctions; aggregating data from more than one year, but this depends on there being no significant changes during those years, for example in the wording of questions; and providing additional boosts to the main sample composed of those from ethnic minority groups, but this can introduce complexity and loss of transparency. Disability There are important differences in the conceptualisation of disability which underpin significant differences in the key statistics and indicators used to measure it, not least between the traditional approach that treats the individual‟s impairment as the locus of the problem, and the „social model‟ approach which treats