---

Welcome to the Policy page.

Policy and representation are key areas of FIS's work. The Director and a number of staff have responsibilities in these areas, as has the Chair of FIS. This involves tracking the main developments in British policy relevant to the Irish community and to the Irish voluntary sector's roles within the wider British voluntary sector. It also involves briefing FIS and its affiliates on significant developments in these areas; and identifying consultations on relevant policies and issues, and ensuring that these are responded to.

One of the policy areas that FIS has worked on for many years is that of the Census and statistical outputs and our knowledge of the literature and statistics of Britain's ethnic populations enable us to advise the FIS staff team and affiliates on specific information issues in this policy-related area.

Members of the FIS team contribute to the following external policy-related and/or strategic forums:

• Department for Work and Pensions' Ethnic Minority Working Party
• the Office for National Statistics' 2011 Census Diversity Advisory Group
• the Steering Group of MiNet, the London regional BAME forum hosted by Race on the Agenda
  (This section of the Policy page is in course of completion.)