The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) published the first issue on data collection in 1978 regarding ‘ethnic monitoring’ (the collection of equality and participation data for the purpose of dectecting (un)equal treatment of equal opportunity policies in the work place, entitled ‘Monitoring of Equal Opportunity Policy: A Guide for Employers.’ This handbook stressed the importance of monitoring for effective equal opportunity policies.

With the collected data selection, choice criteria, and processes that are examined it is easier to get an overview of whether individuals are selected according to their performances and skills, or whether preferences (usually for White British) play a role. All employees shall enjoy equal opportunities, and if necessary receive training opportunities in order to be able to develop within the company. Such directives shall be statistically monitored in order to check their effects. The following recommendation was issued for data collection: employees and applicants are to specify their ethnic origin which will be stored in a personal file. During the application process is it should be reviewed how application and employment patterns for specific positions, job groups, and departments look, are broken down by criteria of ethnic origin. This would demonstrate whether equality is respected or not.

Public institutions must comply with “ethnic monitoring”, unlessif they are excplicitely told not to. According to the British labour law, employers should promote equal opportunities, and store information about employee benefits, as well as pay for this purpose as well as for application, promotion and training on ethnicity. Public institutions with more than 150 employees must also examine the distribution of further training, benefits, time limits, complaints, and procedures, and publish the findings annually.

The CRE also stressed that it is not only essential for data to be collected, but it is also the way it is used afterwards that is important. This implies collecting data, counting employees, and examining whether general obligations are being fulfilled. It is therefore important that public bodies check the differences in treatment between members of different ethnic groups, and investigate the reasons which might have lead to those differences. This would then be used to tackle disadvantages and possible discrimination.

As a result, discrimination shall be reduced and equal treatment explicitly encouraged. Public authorities shall not only monitor the company of employees through data collection, but also extend the monitoring to the overall scope of obligations and compentence of an authority.

Categories from respective previous censuses shall be used for monitoring within institutions in order to provide comparability. Classification is carried out by the person itself and is subject to the principle of self-identification. In case it is chosen by a third party, which shall be considered as a last resort, the opportunity of confirmation or correction must be given. ‘Ethnic monitoring’ is permitted to be carried out in case of classifications by third parties. However, any other use of this data is unlawful. Private institutions are not subject to ‘ethnic monitoring’ duty. Many however, do this anyway to verify the implementation of its internal equal opportunities policies.