Britain’s first female Sikh MP has brought forward a bill which she hopes will end decades of discrimination against Jews and Sikhs in the UK.
Preet Kaur Gill, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, tabled her legislation in the Commons in a 10-minute rule bill, aimed at forcing the authorities to start to recognise Jews and Sikhs as ethnic groups not just religious ones.
Jews and Sikhs are two of the top three ethnic groups to experience hate crimes in the UK yet do not have data collected to help the police and other authorities tackle discrimination.
Added to that there is a concern that the NHS is also not collating data of health issues related to the ethnic groups leading to worse outcomes. The issue became accute during the covid pandemic when data about other ethnic groups was being tracked by health services.
In her speech, Ms Kaur Gill quoted the Jewish comedian David Baddiel who has described the failures as “othering and alienating”.
Amanda Bowman, vice president of the Board of Deputies, wrote last year: “Imagine you’re sitting in a hospital waiting room and have been asked to fill out a form which, among other questions, asks for your ethnicity. […] So which box do I tick?”
Ms Kaur Gill told the Commons: “Since October 7 2023, the British Jewish community have faced an appalling rise in antisemitic hate attacks. While the Home Office collects data on antisemitic hate crimes by religion, it doesn’t on racially aggravated antisemitism. This is despite racial hate crime outnumbering religiously aggravated hate crime by 10:1.
“There is therefore a serious risk that Jewish hate crimes are being undercounted by the Home Office, because they do not have their own Jewish ethnic category.”
She went on: “The same also goes for Sikhs, as has been documented in the APPG on British Sikhs’ report into anti-Sikh hate. Sikhs are the most visible minority in Britain, yet we do not collect data on racist anti-Sikh hate.
“The last government’s hate crime action plan effectively ignored Sikh hate or the definition of anti-Sikh hate.”
Sikhs and Jews are in the unique position of being considered both ethnic and religious groups under the Equality Act 2010. Currently, public bodies use ethnicity data to design and deliver public services in compliance with equalities legislation.
However, despite Sikhs and Jews being legally recognised as ethnic groups for over 40 years, they are listed under religion questions, which are never or rarely used by public bodies and render Sikhs and Jews “invisible to policymakers”.
The Birmingham MP added: “The pandemic was a stark warning that poor data costs lives, yet years later we are still not learning the lessons. Whether you consider our legal status, our size, our contribution to society, or the inequalities and discrimination we face, it is scandalous that most public bodies still fail to routinely collect data on the Sikh and Jewish communities for the delivery of public services.
“All our communities are asking for is fairness: to be counted as the ethnic groups we have been recognised as in law for over 40 years. It’s high time that public bodies ended this injustice. As legislators we must put this wrong right to support them to do that.”
Supporting the legislation, Andrew Gilbert, vice president of the Board of Deputies, said: “Many organisations in the Jewish Community have been campaigning for Jews and Sikhs to be included in the collection of ethnicity data for many years.
“The Board of Deputies were very disappointed when ONS did not add us when they added other groups.
“We urge the Cabinet Office to help on this as it is making our communities invisible on data on Housing Crime Health and Education.”