Developing a national barometer of prejudice and discrimination in Britain

This is the first national survey of prejudice for over a decade. It measures prejudice

and discrimination in Britain experienced by people with a wide range of protected

characteristics: age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, sexual orientation,

pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment.

Our report demonstrates the value of using a national survey of this type to measure

prejudice and discrimination in Britain and to set out a benchmark for future surveys.

The purpose of this research is to help establish a national ‘barometer’ for monitoring

changes in the attitudes and experiences of the general population.

We were commissioned by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to design

and run a national survey of prejudice, using a consistent set of measures across a

range of protected characteristics. We surveyed 2,853 adults in Britain using the

NatCen Panel surveys and carried out an additional survey to target minority groups

that may otherwise not be well represented in the survey.

Our approach provides new insights into the form and prevalence of prejudice and

discrimination in Britain. Measuring these issues in a consistent way across

protected characteristics groups and across England, Scotland and Wales, gives us

a uniquely recent and comparable overview. It enables us to look across a range of

measures to paint a meaningful picture of the prejudice affecting a particular

protected characteristic, rather than looking at individual measures on their own.

Although it does not yet provide a picture of prejudice and discrimination for all

protected characteristics – which would require a larger and further-developed

survey – it sets out a workable model for a future national instrument for monitoring

these issues in Britain.

This report provides an overview of what we have found out about people’s

experiences and expressions of prejudice in Britain.