Equality Information
Collect equality monitoring information to help understand if your service treats all users fairly and to meet legal requirements.
Legal requirement
Public bodies have a duty to consider equality impacts. Collecting this data helps demonstrate compliance.
When to Collect
- When applying for jobs or services
- When conducting user research
- When monitoring service usage patterns
- When required by law or policy
General Principles
- Always make equality questions optional
- Explain why you're asking and how data will be used
- Reassure users it won't affect their application
- Allow users to skip or select "Prefer not to say"
- Store data separately from application data where possible
Introduction
Equality monitoring
We ask these questions to make sure our services are accessible and fair to everyone.
Your answers are optional and will not affect your application. The information is stored anonymously and used only for monitoring purposes.
Age
Sex
Ethnic Group
Use a two-step approach: first ask for the broad ethnic group, then for the specific background.
Disability
Religion
Data Protection
Equality data is classed as "special category data" under data protection law. You must:
- Have explicit consent or another legal basis
- Store data securely and separately where possible
- Only use data for the stated purpose
- Delete data when no longer needed