Posted to Sikh News Discussion by Sikh Federation UK
The Times, 20 April 2020. Sikhs have given Scottish ministers two weeks to confirm they will be recognised as a distinct ethnic group on the next census before launching legal action.
The Sikh Federation has posted a “pre-action letter” to the Scottish government saying that ministers’ plan to exclude them from the ethnicity tick-box list is illegal under equalities law.
The federation said its community had been recognised as an ethnic group in the UK since 1983 and expressed “disbelief” that it would not be identified as such on the census.
Pagans will be an accepted religion for the first time but there is no room for Episcopalians, who outnumber Sikhs, Jews and pagans combined in Scotland.
Fiona Hyslop, the culture secretary, warned that an amendment or legal action would delay the implementation of the whole census as she would be forced to do a complete redraft.
She offered Sikhs a compromise where they would be given advice in the explanatory notes to declare their ethnicity in the “Other” section beneath the tick boxes.
The federation said in February that this was a step in the right direction but did not go far enough and refused to withdraw its threat of legal action.
Scottish ministers have now been informed by Balfour and Manson LLP that legal action will commence in two weeks unless a change is put into action.
The federation said: “The ethnic groups specified in the census are used by public bodies in Scotland for resource allocation, to inform policy development and make service planning decisions.
“It also helps public bodies meet and monitor their statutory obligations arising from equalities legislation.”
The federation said that Sikhs in Scotland “are consistently being overlooked and discriminated against by public bodies in deciding policies that impact on them”, in contravention of EU equalities law and the Equality Act 2010.
It added: “Scottish ministers have been asked to confirm they will therefore lay an amended Census Order in the Scottish parliament with a Sikh ethnic tick box response option or they could find themselves in the Court of Session in Edinburgh accused of discrimination.”
A meeting to discuss the amendment on 25 March was postponed due to “urgent parliamentary business” and the rearranged meeting on 02 April was cancelled as the corona-virus crisis escalated.
The Scottish government, health bodies and National Records of Scotland have been unable to provide data on the number of Sikhs testing positive for Covid-19 or on the number of Sikh deaths occurring from the disease in Scotland.
The federation hopes the pause in parliamentary legislation will give Scottish ministers time to reflect on their decision to exclude them from the census.
The legal challenge is also expected to resonate in England and Wales, where the Sikh Federation (UK) has launched a second judicial review against a similar omission there.
In the first judicial review challenge that took seven months in the courts on an expedited timetable, the High Court ruled on 12 December last year that the claim was too early as the Cabinet Office minister had not yet laid the draft Census Order before parliament.
A Scottish government spokesman said: “National Records of Scotland continues to plan for Scotland’s census in March 2021 and is committed to delivering a set of questions and associated guidance which enables everyone in Scotland to access, understand and complete the census.
“Following engagement with stakeholders, National Records of Scotland is proposing that the question on ethnic group will include a prompt to highlight the opportunity to write in ‘Sikh’ as a response.”
Sikhs give ministers two-week warning of census legal action
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