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In everyday settings in the UK the self-determination of identity has been taken for granted. In the decennial census and the bureaucratic practices of modern governance, the ascription of ethnicity is in the hands of the subject who is the final arbiter, even if this sometimes breaks down by default. However, for some minority ethnic groups, notably 'black Africans', a group 'created' by the decennial census, observer-led approaches to determining identity have insinuated themselves into some policy contexts in the UK. The targeting by HIV/AIDS workers of 'black Africans' in mundane public settings based on such signalling devices as appearance and language or accent has been endorsed as a modus operandi in preventative care. For around a decade the UK Border Agency has made use of linguistic analysis and other forensic methods to establish the nationality of Somali-origin asylum seekers as against claims from other East Africans. Its latest Human Provenance Pilot Project - the use of isotope analysis and DNA ancestry testing to establish nationality - again places 'black Africans' on the front line. These external processes of identification raise important ethical challenges, given the potential for harm when assignment is incorrect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, 'diversity' has emerged as a key value in its own right, celebrated through human rights and similar policies promoting identity and providing an additional focus to that of the more traditional equalities agenda and its concern with 'statistical proportionality'. It has been conjectured that classifications rooted in diversity policy will either propel data collection practices into the use of finer-grained distinctions or that these measurement systems will collapse under their own weight. In Britain pressure to increase the number of categories in ethnicity classifications highlights the tension between the validity of granular categories and their utility (in terms of practicality of data collection). Similarly, the interest in identity evokes a trade-off between the selective attribution of such measures and the greater stability of operationally defined ethnicity. In meeting the challenge of the diversity agenda, a number of approaches—innovative for Britain—are now being debated to accommodate greater numbers of categories in census collections. These include multi-ticking across categories (thereby capturing multiplicity) and the shift from classifications framed by colour to those privileging ethnic background (but attended by category proliferation). Conceptually, the measurement of the multiple dimensions of ethnicity has found favour but not so far encompassing ethnic origin/ancestry collected in US and Canadian Censuses. While some have argued that ethnicity classifications are already unwieldy and that retrenchment is needed, validity—increasingly insisted upon by the collectivities themselves and other non-state organisations—is seen as winning out. The demands of inclusiveness and identity visibility indicate that classifications are headed in the direction of greater complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New legal provisions and regulatory practices in the UK have afforded protection against discrimination for sexual orientation minorities and conferred rights similar to those of heterosexually partnered couples. In addition, sexual orientation has been recognised as one of the main equality strands in new equality legislation and equality governance. Government departments and statutory and other organisations now face the need to collect equal opportunities and other data on these groups to monitor compliance. However, there has been little track record in the UK of collecting data on this dimension, resulting in issues of definition, categorisation, sample size and potential measurement error having to be addressed from a negligible evidence base. Limited survey data indicate significant problems relating to item non-response and misreporting, reflecting wider concerns about the sensitivity of the data and disclosure. Given that sexual orientation is on track to be mainstreamed in the context of workforce recruitment and service delivery, a strategy across government and other sectors is needed to pool expertise and establish a shared evidence base and stock of good practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]