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	The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 269 No 7218 p484 5 October 2002	This page Reprint Photocopy
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Workforce census

Upset at being profiled by ethnic origin

From Mr A. C. Patel, MRPharmS

I take offence at receiving your enclosed "Pharmacy Workforce Census" 2002, which I refuse to complete on the grounds that the Society is trying to sort me out by my ethnic origin, especially since it is not an anonymous survey.

I am wondering what a learned Society like ours is trying to do with this information. One of the reasons forwarded in The Journal, implementing race relations legislation (PJ, 14 September, p378), does not hold water — the Society is not the Government. Would the practice research division care to elaborate? As a member of an ethnic minority I have access to an abundance of Race Relations Acts and Laws — we do not need any more legislation.

As a member of the Society I have several questions:

(1) Who would have access to the results of this census and in what form?

(2) How does the Society plan on protecting this data?

(3) Where would this data be stored and in what format?

(4) Does the Society under the Data Protection Act have to make the Data Protection Agency aware that it is conducting such a survey?

Another question that comes to my mind is how the ethnic origin survey of pharmacists is going to help plan the future of the pharmacy profession? I think it is important to focus on enhancing the image and the morale of the Society and its membership.

I feel extremely upset at the thought that I am being profiled by my ethnic origin. I am currently seeking legal advice as to whether the Society can conduct surveys/census that are based on racial/ethnic profiling of its membership under the Race Relations Act since the profiling does not enhance, benefit or further contribute to the learnedness of the membership.

Ashok Patel
London E1W

ZOE WHITTINGTON, research manager, pharmacy practice research division, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:

The question of why the Society collects data on ethnic origin has been responded to previously (PJ, 14 September, p378 and 28 September, p439).

The aggregated results of the census will be published and therefore be in the public domain. The data are secured by ensuring that access is only for statistical analysis and to support the regulatory and professional functions by named individuals in the Society. It will not be possible for external organisations to review individual records. The data will be stored on a secure server folder at the Society. This will only be available to authorised users and for authorised purposes, eg, research into the changing work patterns of pharmacists. The collection, processing and disclosure of these data are covered by our Data Protection Registration (mmc652, 25 June 2002). Analysis of our registration confirms that we have registered all data being collected, processed and disclosed for the purposes of this research project.

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