For the purposes of the Act ‘race’ includes skin colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins. A racial group can be made up of two or more different racial groups (eg Black Britons).

A problem with the use of the word 'race' is the inference that there is more than one race of humanity, and this idea is one of the foundations of racism and racist behaviour.

In fact, humanity is a single species. The word 'ethnicity' has none of the negative connotations of ‘race’ and is used to recognise that people may be divided by such features as nationality, language, country of birth, shared culture and skin colour.