Gender, Ethnicity and Labour Market in the UK

You asked

I would like to know the following information please:

How many independent businesses are owned by black women of African or Caribbean origin within the UK at present?

What business sectors do these business operate within?

What are the statistics reflecting the education levels of black females within the UK, over the age of 18?

What are the statistics for black owned business within the UK in 2017? How does this compare to 2015?

How many of the black owned businesses were funded by bank loans or government grants?

We said

Thank you for your request.

We can provide information on how many black women of African or Caribbean ethnicity are self-employed. However, please note, being self-employed does not necessarily mean they own the business.

Please find attached an extract from Census 2011 table DC6201EW Economic activity by ethnic group, sex and age for England and Wales.

We can also provide information on ethnic groups by highest level of qualification by age and sex for England and Wales; please see attached the Census 2011 commissioned table CT0247.

Although the UK Censuses take place on the same day, they are run separately by each of the National Statistics Office's (Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA), National Records Scotland (NRS), and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for both England and Wales). If you would like Census information for both Northern Ireland and Scotland, you will need to contact them directly.

Alternatively, the information you have requested in relation to education and ethnicity for the UK could be obtained from the customer services team of ONS Social Survey Division. This team provides an ad hoc analysis service, including - of relevance in this instance - tabulations of Labour Force (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS) data, both of which contain question variables relating to Ethnicity and Education levels. This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate. Details of the religion variables included in these datasets can be viewed in the LFS User Guides; https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyuserguidance

If you would like to enquire about our service then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk

Because this information is available through that 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 needs to be applied.

If you are able to do your own cross-tabulations you could purchase an anonymised LFS or APS dataset from the UK Data Service. Details on costs and how to download the data can be found on their website;

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

Unfortunately, we do not hold information on business ownership or how they may have funded their busines