Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall has responded to an ONS (Office for National Statistics) consultation relating to the 2031 Census, in which we have demanded a Cornish nationality tick-box. The representation was as follows:
The Cornish and the 2031 Census
National minority status
On 24th April 2014, the Cornish were recognised as a national minority by the UK Government through the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM).
The Framework Convention is a significant international treaty and sets out numerous obligations. These include support for language and culture, education and the media, the greater visibility of national minorities in public life, the protection of historic territories, more opportunities on the international stage, and so much more.
The official government press release stated that “the decision to recognise the unique identity of the Cornish, now affords them the same status … as the UK’s other Celtic people, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.”
But sadly, the UK Government and the machinery of the UK state is (i) not treating the Cornish equally with the other national/national minority groups of the United Kingdom and it is (ii) failing to meet its obligations through the FCPNM.
A key example of this was the failure of the UK Government and ONS to include a Cornish nationality tick-box on the 2021 Census.
It is our hope that this can be remedied in the 2031 Census and data collection on the Cornish can be carried out in a consistent manner with that for the Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh, thereby achieving full compliance with the FCPNM.
Our requests for the next Census
We note that the census questionnaires have historically been slightly different for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; and would suggest that a bespoke questionnaire for the 2031 Census be used in Cornwall.
The below response builds on our experience with the 2021 Census paperwork distributed in Cornwall, England and Wales, but we would request that our comments also apply in Northern Ireland and Scotland.
- Ethnicity
For the “England and Wales” 2021 Census, tick-box response options for the ethnicity question included “White – English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British” in Cornwall and England, and “White – Welsh, English, Scottish, Northern Irish or British” in Wales.
We would request that, in the 2031 Census, the ethnicity response options be modified to:
- “White – English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, Cornish or British” in England [not including Cornwall].
- “White – Welsh, English, Scottish, Northern Irish, Cornish or British” in Wales.
- “White – Cornish, English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British” in Cornwall.
For the “England and Wales” 2021 Census, tick-box response options for the ethnicity question also included “Asian or Asian British” and “Black, Black British, Caribbean or African” in Cornwall and England while, in Wales, the tick-box response options included “Asian, Asian Welsh or Asian British” and “Black, Black Welsh, Black British, Caribbean or African.”
We would request that, in the 2031 Census, the ethnicity response options for use in Cornwall be modified to:
- “Asian, Asian Cornish or Asian British”
- “Black, Black Cornish, Black British, Caribbean or African.”
- Nationality
On the “England and Wales” 2021 Census in Cornwall and England, tick-box response options for nationality were “British, English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish and Other.” In Wales, the options were ordered differently with Welsh at the top.
We would request that, in the 2031 Census, the response options should include Cornish and, in Cornwall, should be ordered as follows:
- Cornish
- British
- English
- Welsh
- Scottish
- Northern Irish
- Other
- Language
On the “England and Wales” 2021 Census in Wales, there was a question about the number of people who could “understand, speak, read or write Welsh.” There was no specific question about the Cornish language.
We would request that, in the 2031 Census, there should be a question about the ability of people to “understand, speak, read or write Cornish.”
Under-recording of the Cornish
In the 2021 Census in Cornwall, England and Wales, a total of 117,350 people ticked the “other” boxes for ethnicity, nationality or language questions and wrote-in “Cornish.” This included 103,230 in Cornwall (18.1% of the total population) and 14,120 in England and Wales.
This was a very powerful collective statement of the strength of Cornish national identity that so many people – when denied a tick-box – made a conscious decision to “write-in” Cornish.
It is appropriate to make a comparison to the Welsh – another national minority within the United Kingdom. In 2001 – the last census before the introduction of a Welsh nationality tick-box, 14% of the population of Wales wrote-in Welsh. Ten years later, when there was a tick-box, the figure rose to 67%.
There has been a significant level of in-migration into Cornwall over several decades and the number of people in Cornwall likely to identify as Cornish will be fewer than the number of Welsh people in Wales. It is therefore truly remarkable that 18.1% of the population to the west of the Tamar did identify as Cornish through the write-in options.
But it nonetheless represents a massive undercount of Cornish people, which needs to be addressed through the introduction of a tick-box.
Issues with incomplete data
As shown above, the lack of a tick‑box for the Cornish means that the data collected is incomplete. It cannot properly be used for meaningful comparisons with data from other national minority groups when the data has been collected using different methodologies – the data for the national minorities (Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh) that had tick-boxes can be deemed to be largely complete, while the data for the Cornish must be viewed as extremely partial.
It has to be as questioned how we extrapolate the partial “write-in” data when attempting to get a full picture of the full lived experience of Cornish people.
Existing evidence – including housing surveys, parish assessments, community network health profiles and more – show that Cornish people are likely to face higher levels of deprivation and poorer outcomes across a range of sectors including health, housing and education.
A Cornish nationality tick-box is needed to ensure appropriate information is collected about the Cornish national group to inform public bodies about their and their socio-economic and other needs.
GRT community
The Gypsy/Traveller/Roma (GRT) community are also protected as a national minority and it is correct that they have had a tick-box under the ethnicity question on the 2021 Census.
But it is worth noting that the number of GRT people within Cornwall, England and Wales (174,500 identified as Gypsy/Irish Traveller or Roma in the last census) is smaller than the number of Cornish people, who should also be afforded a tick-box in the nationality section of the 2031 Census.
ONS position prior to 2021 Census
Members of Mebyon Kernow were active in lobbying for the inclusion of a Cornish tick-box for the 2021, along with people from many other organisations, and were extremely disappointed at the ONS’s position as set out in the 2018 White Paper “Help Shape Our Future.”
This stated that the ONS considered that the need for data collection was “very localised” and the demand for Cornish‑specific data outside Cornwall was deemed not strong enough to justify a tick‑box covering Cornwall, England and Wales.
We wish to challenge these prior assertions, which we consider illogical.
First and foremost, the Cornish are recognised as a “national” minority within the UK, just like the Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh. This is not a “local” issue and treating the Cornish differently to the other national minority groups is contrary to the FCPNM.
And second, it is nonsensical to make the “localised need” argument. Just as there is a higher percentage of Cornish people in Cornwall, there is a higher percentage of Welsh people in Wales – but the UK Government and ONS are not looking to remove the Welsh nationality tick-box.
It is our view that the UK Government and the ONS have an obligation to collect data about all national minority groups in the United Kingdom and that must include the Cornihsh
Problems with the release of Cornish data from the 2021 Census
We were extremely disappointed at the problems with the publication of the “write-in” results from the 2021 Census – which would not have happened if there had been a Cornish nationality tick-box.
The initial press release from the ONS in November 2022 included a number of errors and it only publicised the number of people who only wrote-in Cornish-only or ticked the British box and wrote-in Cornish. The published number was 99,754.
Following pressure from activists in Cornwall, the ONS issued further information. This included the number of those people who wrote in Cornish (but also ticked a box for another UK identity – English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish). The overall total had gone up to 108,860 people, of whom 96,375 were resident in Cornwall.
It wasn’t until December 2023 that the ONS published its analysis of everyone who had identified as Cornish through their ethnicity, nationality or language. Their final figure was the 117,350 noted above.
We respectfully ask that the Cornish are treated with the same respect as the other national minority groups across the UK, with a Cornish nationality tick-box, so that such difficulties do not happen again in the future.
Recognition for the Cornish in the 2031 Census and the wider UK Government Data
This representation primarily section seeks changes to the tick-boxes in the ethnicity, nationality and language sections of the 2031, but we would ask that the ONS goes further and ensures that data about the Cornish is collected by all governmental and public service bodies.
This needed to ensure that the UK Government and all parts of the UK state meet their obligations to the Cornish through the FCPNM.