Recommendation 6

HM Government Acknowledged

The Minister for Equalities’ first quarterly report recommended (Recommendation 9) that the recording of ethnicity as part of the death certification process should become mandatory. While work is underway to implement this recommendation, this is not a quick fix, given the need for primary legislation and to make changes to existing systems. In the interim, the government is working to improve the quality of data used to measure the impacts of COVID-19 on people in ethnic minority groups. For example, the DHSC laid two Statutory Instruments in December 2020 which amended the regulations governing GP contracts and will mandate the recording of patient ethnicity data in general practice, where such data is provided by the patient or someone lawfully acting on their behalf (where the patient is a child or someone who lacks capacity). This will apply to all of the main forms of GP contract. The amendment will not put a contractual obligation on contractors to request, or actively collect, a GP patient’s ethnicity data. It sets a clear expectation that recording this data where it is available is important. This provides a first step in capturing more ethnicity data on patient records for the purposes of data linking in the future. Ethnicity data is already collected by practices for around 65% of their patients, but not systematically captured and recorded by all practices on the patient record. Following the PHE report, NHSE has encouraged practices to ensure that, where it is available (for example, when the patient provides such information), ethnicity data should be recorded on patients’ records. The DHSC has commissioned NHS-E/I to propose how ethnicity data can be produced and utilised using the Unified Information Standard for Protected Characteristics (UISPC). NHS-E/I’s report will be submitted to DHSC shortly. NHS England is also collecting data on vaccinations by ethnicity. This is published on a weekly basis.6