Data that belongs to the spectrum of equality and participation data are collected in different areas in the UK. One of the general principles of this involvement is that it is always voluntary. Under the UK law no one is obliged to give answers to questions on ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, or age.

Data on ethnicity is collected in censuses that are carried out every ten years; in school censuses since 2003, in the four national surveys on ethnic minorities from the Policy Studies Institute since the 1960,s, and for national databases for university access.

The question of ethnic origin appeared for the first time in national statistics in 1976. Before that, information on country of birth, and nationality were collected. Since then, survey categories have been changed and revised. The challenge ison the one hand to track developments of the years, and on the other hand to adapt and observe the changing realities. For example, the category ‘Bangladeshi’ remained constant, whereas the category ‘Black Caribbean’ changed from ‘West Indian’, as a result of the word ‘Black’ being considered insulting. The category Gypsy/Roma/Traveller was previously only collected in the school census, and was only introduced in the national census in 2011. Finally, a problem that can occur in the ambiguity resulting from the nature of the questions that allows the categories to reflect both the diversity of the population, as well as the diversity within groups.

In 1965 and 1976 discrimination was made illegal through laws which also laid the foundation for ‘ethnic monitoring’, and the ‘Commission of Racial Equality’. It was through this which the Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR) opened, observed, and supported the progress on equal treatment. ‘Ethnic monitoring’ is a consequence of the McPherson investigation from 1999,  following the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, in which the British police were accused of racism.

The ‘Race Relations Act’ of 2000 required public institutions to practice ‘ethnic monitoring’. They are also required to make equality a central part of their work, as well as adjust policies procedures, services, and working conditions. Public institutions are required to have anti-discrimination directives, and show that they have no adverse effects on equality. Private institutions, such as companies and parties, have no obligation to ‘ethnic monitoring’. Nevertheless, many do it in order to verify the effectiveness of their equality policies. For this purpose, the collection of equality and participation data is essential.