Schedule 9
Equality Bill
5:30 pm
John Mason (Glasgow East, Scottish National Party)
I can respond by basically agreeing with the Minister. However, the fear is that the measure leaves out—we might not want to say that this is “narrowing”—things that might otherwise be expected to be included. That is my point, and I think it is valid.
In Reaney v. the Diocese of Hereford, Stonewall financed a legal action by a homosexual man against the Church of England over his application to become a diocesan youth worker. The judgment seemed peculiar and fudged the issues. Mr. Reaney won on the particular facts of the case, but the employment tribunal rejected the argument that the exemption applied only to Church ministers, and ruled that Churches could also require a youth worker to adhere to their doctrines on marriage and celibacy. However, explanatory note 747 on page E182 insists that the new wording in paragraph 2 excludes youth workers. In that case, the new wording is intended to narrow the exception.
The Government—intentionally or unintentionally—have got religious groups very worried indeed. Both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church gave evidence saying that they believed that the Bill weakened protections that were designed to protect their fundamental human right to manifest their religion.
Let me make some comparisons that might help the Committee to understand better where the Churches are coming from. If a Greenpeace employee was found to be participating in the arms trade, surely he or she would be asked to leave, because anything else would deny a basic tenet of the organisation and expose it to ridicule. If the world knew that Greenpeace employed such a person, people would cease to support it. Similarly, if a political party researcher began campaigning for another party, surely that person would not keep their job. To allow someone so at odds with the party to remain in a position of influence would be a breach of the original party’s freedom of association.
There is something fundamental about working for an organisation with a strong ethos. This could apply to any of the protected characteristics, whether it is age, disability, LGBT status or anything else. There is an expectation that all staff should be signed up to and enthusiastic about an organisation’s direction. That affects the mood when staff come to work in the morning, how they chat in the staff room and so on. I am an accountant, but I have worked for nursing homes and housing associations. One would expect everyone in a nursing home, including the accountant, to be signed up to nursing and the welfare of the residents. Similarly, in housing, one expects everyone to be signed up to quality housing and the good of the tenants. In the same way, the Churches should not have to employ people who, through their lifestyle, repudiate important beliefs that the organisation exists to promote.
Amendments 42, 46 and 47 would widen the scope of the religious exemptions. In the Reaney case that I mentioned, the Diocese of Hereford was ordered to pay £47,000 for refusing to appoint to a diocesan youth worker position a man who had only recently ended a homosexual relationship and who said that he might enter into another such relationship in future. Everyone can see the difficulty in which that places the Church. The case shows that the existing exceptions are not sufficiently robust. My amendments demonstrate different ways of wording the exemptions to provide better protection for religious freedom of association.
Amendment 42 takes the religious ethos test from paragraph 3, which is a broader exception, and places it into the definition of organised religion. A body would have to prove only that the employment was for the purposes of an organisation with a religious ethos. The test is acceptable to the Government in relation to religious discrimination, so why not in relation to other grounds? The approach would make it easier for religious bodies to prove that a particular post fell within the sexual conduct exception.
Amendments 46 and 47 take the list of activities exempted by paragraph 2 of schedule 9 and place them within the framework of paragraph 3. Again, paragraph 3 protects a broader range of posts. That is by far the neatest and most effective way of providing protection to religious bodies that want to maintain their beliefs in their employment policies. Some will say that both my approaches are too wide and would benefit organisations and jobs that they do not think should be covered, but we must be careful about telling religious organisations which posts are important to their religion and which are not. If they can pass the religious ethos test, we must leave it up to them.
I note that the Conservatives have tabled amendment 189, which would make the definition of organised religion marginally wider by tinkering with the “wholly or mainly” test. Their amendment highlights the arbitrary nature of the organised religion test. A youth worker who spends 49 per cent. of his time teaching doctrine is none the less not in a protected post, but if he spends 51 per cent. of his time teaching, he is, so a Church may be told by the state to employ as a teacher of their religion someone who rejects its teachings all for the sake of 2 per cent. of the worker’s time. The arrangement seems too arbitrary and uncertain.
There are too many hoops in the exceptions for Churches to jump through, even though they are designed to protect Churches’ fundamental human rights. I hope that the Government will think again about some of the issues.