Ethnicity of the deceased person: further background

The extent to which the procedures were followed in 2012

In June 2013, National Records of Scotland  (NRS) was informed of occasions on which registrars had not followed the correct procedure for collecting, when a death is registered, information about the ethnicity of the deceased person. Therefore, in order to assess the usability of the data that had been collected for 2012, and to remind registrars of the procedures that should be followed, NRS’s Head of Registration Policy sent a short questionnaire to the Chief/Senior Registrar in each local authority in July 2013. The questionnaire, which was to be answered separately in respect of each of the area's offices, asked about the extent to which, for deaths registered in 2012:

• informants were shown the laminated card which:
  • gives some background;
  • explains that the information would be shared with the NHS, used for research to improve health services, and would not be recorded in the register of deaths;
  • sets out the question which the informant should be asked, about whether he/she is willing to provide the ethnic group of the deceased; and
  • shows the ethnic groups that are be used, including the ‘other’ ones (such as ‘Other white ethnic group’), for which a description can be ‘written in’;
• informants were asked if they consented to the recording and sharing of the information
• informants who had given their consent were asked for the ethnic group of the deceased.

For simplicity, the questionnaire allowed for three possible answers to each of these questions: ‘in all cases’, ‘in some cases’, ‘not shown / not asked’.

The following results were obtained, counting each registration office on the basis of the number of deaths that were registered in 2012.

(a) Informants were shown the laminated card

• in all cases - for offices registering 18 per cent of deaths
• in some cases - for offices registering 46 per cent of deaths
• the card was not shown - for offices registering 35 per cent of deaths

(b) Informants were asked if they consented to the recording and sharing of the information

• in all cases - for offices registering 84 per cent of deaths
• in some cases - for offices registering 13 per cent of deaths
• consent was not sought - for offices registering 4 per cent of deaths

(c) Informants were asked for the deceased's ethnic group (unless they had said that they were unwilling or unable to provide the information)

• in all cases - for offices registering 94 per cent of deaths
• in some cases - for offices registering 6 per cent of deaths
• the ethnic group was not requested - for offices registering 0 per cent of deaths 

In summary, registrars' responses suggest that:

(a) the laminated card was not used in many cases (possibly the majority);
(b) the informant's consent was sought in the vast majority of cases;
(c) almost all informants were asked about the ethnic group of the deceased.

The responses on (c) suggest that the results should, in almost all cases, be what informants said were the ethnic groups of the people who had died, even though the answers to (a) and (b) indicate that the intended procedures had not been followed properly in significant proportions of cases.

The Head of Registration Policy’s e-mail to Chief / Senior Registrars asked them to remind their staff to follow the specified process, so it was hoped that matters would improve with effect from July/August 2013.