FOI REF: FOI/2023/5022
You asked
Please could you provide the following data:
1. Country of birth of people in same-sex marriages
2. Ratio of age standardised proportions of people in same-sex marriages and civil partnerships to people in opposite-sex marriages in each 18 ethnic group
3. Ethnicity of people in same sex marriages
4. Sexual Orientation by detailed 18 ethnic groups and gender
5. Sexual Orientation by Local Authority and 18 ethnic groups
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request.
Please find each question answered in turn below.
1. The data regarding the country of birth of people in same-sex marriages is now available in the flexible table builder, released on 28 March 2023. Select 'Usual residents' population and add the 'Marital and civil partnership status' variable, change the number of categories to 12 to include Married: same sex. You can find it here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/datacombiningmultiplevariablesenglandandwalescensus2021
Due to disclosure rules (ensuring that individuals cannot be identified within the dataset), some countries may be aggregated or suppressed within this data.
2. Some data regarding age, marital status, and ethnic group is available in the release mentioned above. This data is the unadjusted numbers rather than age standardised. Due to disclosure rules (ensuring that individuals cannot be identified within the dataset), some categories may be aggregated or suppressed within this data.
If you would like to obtain this data with age-standardised numbers, we would recommend contacting our Census Customer Services team to discuss the provision of this as a bespoke output. These services are subject to disclosure controls, resources, legal frameworks, and an agreement of costs in line with our Charging Policy. Please contact Customer.Services@ons.gov.uk to discuss.
3. The data regarding the ethnicity of people in same sex marriages is available in the flexible table builder (link same as above). As with the other variables, some categories may be suppressed due to disclosure rules.
4. Sexual orientation by ethnic group is available in ready-made tables released on 4 April 2023 but this is not broken down by any other variables. Due to disclosure rules, the ethnic group data is at a higher level (8 categories) rather than the 18 categories.
There will be more information on sexual orientation by ethnic group published later this year.
5. The data referred to in our answer to question 4 is available at local authority level.
In some instances, our publications have not provided data broken down to the level requested (e.g. the 18 ethnicity categories). This is because there is a high risk of individuals being identified in these instances, so disclosure controls were applied in line with our disclosure control policy.
If we were to release information that would pose a high risk of identification of individuals, this would likely undermine public trust in ONS and lead to a reduction in survey response rates and in administrative data holders being willing to share their data with ONS.
Limiting our data acquisition processes in this way would reduce the quality and value of our statistical information, as it would not be as accurate or representative of our society. This action would compromise our ability to comply with two of the core pillars in our Code of Practice for Statistics, which is at the centre of our public duties.
As this disclosure would likely prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs, Section 36(2)(c) of the Freedom of Inforamtion Act 2000 (FOIA) is engaged.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We understand and appreciate the public interest in the transparency of our organisation regarding the information that we hold. However, the consequences of the prohibition of our organisation to collect statistical data from the public and other data suppliers would be detrimental to the public interest.
If we experienced a reduction in the number of avenues by which we can obtain new and up-to-date statistical information, this would significantly reduce the quality and value of our statistical releases. Following this, we would experience a reduction in public and governmental trust in our data, as they would no longer be able to rely on accurate, well-informed statistical information on which they can base their decisions. In order to truly benefit the public, policy decisions must be based on accurate and up-to-date information.
Therefore, on balance, the public interest falls in favour of withholding the requested information in this instance.