Research on the Sikh community in the UK is essential to better inform policy, but surveys must be improved

Various Sikh organisations in the UK have conducted research to better inform policy and decision making. The most recent is the UK Sikh Survey conducted by The Sikh Network. Complex issues of race hate crime, employment discrimination and sexual grooming were addressed, and some interesting, but also debatable conclusions arrived at. This leads to questions needing to be asked about methodology, sample size and selection, and responder characteristics (age, gender make-up etc.) so that the results can be interpreted more correctly. The Sikh Network, Jagbir Jhutti-Johal argues, should be more cautious about the conclusions it makes, although the data collected is still valuable.