UK Government – The Equality Act 2010

Under the Equality Act 2010, “race” as a protected characteristic includes colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origins. It also encompasses racial groups, which are defined as groups of people sharing these characteristics. This means discrimination based on an individual’s skin colour, their citizenship, or their heritage (even if different from their current nationality) is unlawful.

UK Government Guidance on Writing About Ethnicity

UK Government Guidance on Writing About Ethnicity states that they use ‘ethnic minorities’ to refer to all ethnic groups except the White British group. Ethnic minorities include White minorities, such as Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller groups.

In research, ‘people from a Black Caribbean background’, ‘the Black ethnic group’ and ‘Black people’ were all acceptable phrases. ‘Blacks’ was not. Similarly ‘people from a White British background’, ‘the White ethnic group’ and ‘White people’ are all acceptable. However, we don’t say ‘Mixed people’ or ‘Mixed race people’. We usually say ‘people with a Mixed ethnic background’ or ‘people from the Mixed ethnic group’.

Ethnic groups are ordered alphabetically in charts and tables, with ‘Other’, and occasionally ‘unknown’, as a final category. In user research, some people were offended when White was placed first in a list of ethnic groups, while others did not like inconsistent ordering.

It is noted that Bangladeshi, Chinese, Indian and Pakistani are also nationalities. If there is a risk of users mistaking ethnicities for nationalities, we avoid ambiguity by writing: ‘people from the Indian ethnic group’, not ‘Indian people’ or ‘pupils from the Chinese ethnic group’, not ‘Chinese pupils’.

The AIGG – Vision & Mission Document

We will work to a particular definition of anti-racism That definition comes from Professor Camara Phyllis Jones: “Racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (which is what we call “race”), that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources”

The AIGG – Structure and Model Document

“Race”: It is widely understood that “race” is not a biological fact but a political idea that we, as a society, have invented18. When differences between groups are understood in terms of differences in appearance (e.g. skin colour) or other biological features, they are said to be racialised. All groups in society can be said to be racialised in some way. But certain groups, such as communities of colour, are racialised with the aim of making them out to be somehow less worthy or important. For this reason, we refer to these groups or communities in this report as being adversely racialised or racially minoritised.

Community: We recognise that this word is too broad to do justice to the diversity of Scotland’s people. We use it here as a shorthand way of talking about communities of colour, as well as those who face racism generally, living in Scotland.

The Anti-Racism Review – 2023

Within this report, we are starting to use the terms “adversely racialised communities”, “racially minoritised/racialised minorities”, and “racialisation” to show that it is systems and structures that do not work for those who are categorised on the basis of “race”, and because of this are sometimes treated differently or disadvantaged. These terms are becoming more widely used across Scottish Government, in line with our acceptance that racism is a structural issue. However, the use of the term ‘minority ethnic’ is still widespread across many Scottish Government policy areas – hence it is still used in places within this report, as this understanding of racism and its impact is still developing. We continue to support everyone’s right to self-identify according to the term they relate to or are most comfortable with

Scottish Government’s Guidance on Data collection and publication – Ethnic Group – 2022

The Scottish Government’s 2022 guidance on ethnic group data collection and publication provides a framework for public bodies to collect consistent, comparable ethnic group data, harmonising with the Scotland Census 2022, and offers rules for handling multiple responses to ensure data can be used to identify inequalities and inform policy. The document details the specific two-part ethnic group question used in the census and explains how to handle responses where multiple boxes are ticked, for example by retaining the smaller, more specific category to help identify groups with specific needs or experiences of discrimination.

The guidance notes that the Scottish Government has revised the ethnicity classification for use in Scottish Official Statistics to be consistent with Scotland’s new census 2022 question. NRS, in consultation with stakeholders and data users, have undertaken extensive research and testing (Scottish Government, 2022)

The Census – 2022

UK Definitions

In England and Wales, the census defines race and ethnicity as the ethnic group a person feels they belong to, based on factors like their culture, family background, or identity. This self-identified group is determined by responding to a two-stage question, first selecting one of five high-level categories (White; Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh; Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African; Mixed or Multiple; or Other ethnic group), and then choosing from a detailed list of 19 specific ethnic groups.

Scotland Definition

the detailed response options and write-in prompts for Scotland’s Census 2022 were changed based on stakeholder engagement and subsequent question testing. More information on this is available in the developing census questions webpage and in the associated cognitive testing document (Scotland’s Census, 2025).

In 2022, only one tick box was available for African or Caribbean/Black ethnicities. In 2011, there were two (for African) and three (for Caribbean/Black). It is noted that the term race is no longer used – categories separate out African, Scottish African or British African from Caribbean or Black, meaning that Black. This has led to large increases in ‘Other African’ and ‘Other Caribbean/Black’ between 2011 and 2022.

In the 2022 census, the White category included the addition of a tick-box for showman/showwoman and one for Roma. These changes mean that the data for Gypsy/Traveller are not fully comparable with data from the 2011 census.

‘Minority ethnic group’ is used here to refer to all other ethnic groups. This includes some ethnic groups that were in the White category on the census form such as Irish, Polish, Gypsy/Traveller, Roma and Showman/Show woman (Scotland’s Census, 2022)

DAG – Word Bank

Anti-racism

The process of breaking up systems, structures, policies, practices and attitudes so that resources and power are shared fairly across all racial groups

Race

A social and political system that classifies people into a hierarchy based on interpretations of factors like physical appearance, social factors and cultural backgrounds.

Race or racial equality

Similarity in opportunities or support for people grouped into different race. Race or racial equity. The absence of unfair, unjust, avoidable or remediable differences between people grouped by race.

Race science

The false belief that people can be divided up into “races” and that some “races” are

superior or inferior to others

Racialisation

The process through which social meaning is assigned to individuals or groups based on shared characteristics such as phenotype, culture, language, nationality, religion, and class for the purpose of generating or maintaining a hierarchy where some groups have dominance over others

Racial literacy

The knowledge, skills and awareness to talk thoughtfully about race and racism.

Racism

A system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks, that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and saps the strength of the whole society through the waste of human resources 34. (See also, Internalised racism, Personally mediated racism, Structural racism and Systematic racism).

Structural racism

When a society’s laws, rules and policies result in and support the unfair treatment of others because of their “race” or ethnicity. Systematic racism Racism that is built into our systems and our society. (See also, Racism).