You asked
I would like to make a freedom information request for the below information:
The race and ethnicity classifications of workers in the retail industry;
The specific careers included in the retail sector;
An insight into the exact classifications of racial classifications in each different sector of the retail industry.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our main source for this type of information is the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a UK survey of people resident in households. Volume 3 of the LFS User Guide shows the ethnicity questions (including the list of ethnic groups) that are used in the interviews (see pages 31-37 here:
Volume 1 of the User Guide also explains the current ethnicity framework, which is based on Census 2011 categories (see page 84 here:
Regarding your data requests, this can be obtained from the LFS datasets. This analysis can be provided as a bespoke service; such enquires should be made to the customer services team of ONS's Social Survey Division (socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk). Special extracts and tabulations of data are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate).
As this information is already available to you via this route, we consider that s.21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. S.21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.
Another route would be to access the anonymised LFS datasets at the UK Data Service if you are able to run your own analysis. Details of how to access the data can be found here: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access.aspx.
Data can be downloaded free of charge for non-commercial purposes but if charges are applicable, you will be notified during the ordering process. Further details are available at the following links:
Advice for commercial users: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/registration.aspx#/tab-commercial-users
Charges: http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/charges.aspx
List of LFS datasets at the UK Data Service: http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/?q=labour+force+survey
LFS user guides: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance