Why does the ELMS forms service not ask diversity monitoring questions?
The principal reason for this is that the forms are available to any business across the EU and BIS is concerned that a “catch-all” solution may create more issues than it solves. Service Providers from other countries may be unfamiliar with the concept of the forms, not understand the voluntary nature of answering these questions in the UK, or find them intrusive for cultural and historical reasons specific to their own country – for instance some questions may be illegal to ask elsewhere. For these reasons we may altogether lose some applicants who otherwise might wish to expand to the UK. Should authorities want applicants to complete diversity monitoring forms, they may do so via the ELMS “Message Box” facility, having taken into account the details given on the application and with a clear explanation that supplying this information is voluntary.
