Birmingham Council proposes to add Sikh and Jewish identities to official forms, aiming to improve service delivery and track inequality.

Birmingham could become the first council in England to recognise Jewish and Sikh identities as ethnic groups in its data.

A motion going before councillors proposes adding the two categories to council forms - aiming to better track inequality and improve how services are delivered.

It follows years of pressure from community leaders who say their communities are too often left out of official records.

For decades, Sikhs and Jews in Birmingham have been recognised as ethnic groups under British law.

Watch the video: Richard Gullick reports

But when it comes to the council's own forms, they've been missing from the tick-boxes.

It may seem like a bureaucratic detail - but for communities who've felt sidelined, it cuts deeper.

Because what doesn't get counted often doesn't get seen. The council is now considering a motion to change that. If approved, Birmingham would become the first local authority in England to formally include Jewish and Sikh categories in its ethnicity data. The move is backed by the Labour group, who say it's about fairness - ensuring public services can properly serve everyone, and giving groups that contribute so much to the city the visibility they deserve.

Sikh and Jewish leaders say they've spent years pushing for this kind of recognition. They argue that without clear data, it's difficult to prove discrimination exists, or to press for resources where they're needed most.

With around 30,000 Sikhs and 2,000 Jewish residents in Birmingham, that's a sizable blind spot for policymakers to ignore.

Some question whether more ethnic categories will help, or simply muddy the waters further.

There are also wider debates over how identity should be measured and whether this change opens the door to further fragmentation in public data.Still, the principle being tested here is simple: if a group is part of a city, shouldn't it be visible in its records?

And in a city as diverse as Birmingham, what gets measured may end up shaping not just services - but the story we tell about who we are.