GSS consultations
This page includes open consultations which are available to members of the Government Statistical Service (GSS). We value all voices across the community and encourage you to share your reflections through these short surveys.
If you have questions about the content on this page, require support, or would like to publicise your consultation, please email GSSNet@statistics.gov.uk.
We encourage members of the GSS to respond to this consultation, which is available until Wednesday 4 February 2026.
Submit your response on the UK Statistics Authority consultation platform in:
Summary
This consultation asks your views on whether additional tick-box response options are required for a new ethnicity harmonised standard. It is part of the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonisation team’s ongoing review of this standard. It is taking place alongside the ONS’s consultation on topics for Census 2031, which asks about user needs for ethnic group data alongside many other topics.
The new ethnicity harmonised standard will be recommended for use by data collectors across the GSS, including teams working on the next censuses in the UK. We expect the UK statistics organisations to consider this standard when developing questions. We expect the relevant census question to align to this standard in England and Wales. We will continue to work closely with teams across the UK to understand their requirements for the standard. Depending on the user needs of each UK nation, this may be delivered through a single version or a suite of harmonised questions.
The GSS Vision: Strength in Numbers was published last year. The GSS Metrics Task and Finish Group launched a short survey in August to help monitor progress on the ambitions, what you feel is working, and what we should focus on improving. The survey closed in September. Findings will be reported to NSEG in November, and updates will be provided to members on action we are taking in early 2026.