To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of there being zero individuals of Chinese and South East Asian heritage on the New Year's Honours list 2021.
Answered on
13 January 2021
The Government is committed to ensuring that the honours system is fully representative of UK society. Data on gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation is collected by asking recipients to complete a diversity survey. A summary of this data is published alongside each New Year and Queen’s Birthday Honours List and can be found at www.gov.uk/honours/honours-lists.
A breakdown of ethnicities of honours recipients is also published twice a year on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website. The declared ethnicity data for recipients included on the New Year Honours List 2021 will be published in due course.. Overall the most recent honours list saw 14.2% of recipients declaring a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background - the highest ever.
Honours recipients can choose to report their own ethnicity using the 2011 Census categories. Data is published for the following five aggregated ethnic groups because the number of honours recipients is small and the data is provided anonymously:
Asian
Black
Mixed
White
Other
Roughly around 10% of recipients do not provide any diversity information when accepting their honour.