Ms Rosemarie Tobin:

The initial pushback came from the GDPR experts in local authorities. This was because of the recommendation to include an ethnic identifier in the social housing needs assessment. The rule under the GDPR is that we can only ask a question if the answer is relevant to the service provided. We wanted to ask the same question that is on the census, which is a general question. It is not Traveller-specific; respondents can tick a box. We were told that this was irrelevant for anybody except Travellers, so we had to ask a Traveller-specific question. That in itself brings up other problems. Another argument held that it was not relevant because there is already a box to tick for Traveller-specific accommodation.

We understand the reasons this is relevant so we are making those arguments and have sought advice.