The National Secular Society
1. The National Secular Society (NSS) is a not-for-profit
non-governmental organisation founded in 1866. It promotes the
separation of religion and state, and seeks a society where law
and the administration of justice are based on equality, respect
for Human Rights and objective evidence without regard to religious
doctrine or belief.
2. We welcome the opportunity to respond to the
Draft House of Lords Bill. The NSS takes no position on the question
of whether the reformed upper chamber should be wholly or mainly
elected. Our response focuses solely on the role of bishops in
the House of Lords. We attach as an appendix the report we prepared
on Lords Reform in relation to the current review.[120]
It was sent to the Deputy Prime Minister Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP,
The Cabinet Office and the House of Lords Reform Team in December
2010. We ask that this be accepted as supporting evidence to our
submission.
3. The NSS promotes secularism as the best means
to create a society in which people of all religions or none can
live together fairly and cohesively. A key objective of the NSS
since its inception in 1866 has been to oppose all forms of religious
privilege. We are therefore very disappointed by the Draft Bill's
proposals to provide continued places for bishops of the established
Church in a partly appointed House.
4. We argue that the retention of reserved places
for Church of England bishops in a reformed House of Lords is
grossly undemocratic; the bishops' only qualification is not personal
merit, but that the Church appointed them. On the strength of
this, they are able to argue strongly and vote for the Church's
self-interest—whereas in other walks of life, those with
a vested interest generally abstain from voting for matters where
they have a self-interest[121].
Their continued presence is also a manifestation of the disproportionate,
entrenched power and privilege of the Church.
5. Academic research commissioned by the National
Secular Society reveals that the United Kingdom is unique among
Western democracies in having ex-officio religious representation
in its legislature, a fact confirmed by Lord Strathclyde in a
PQA: "The House of Lords is the only legislature that includes
ex officio representation of clerics".[122]
The vast majority of Western democracies have abandoned all links
between Church and State, with no discernible adverse consequences.
6. Independently published research shows long
term and steepening decline in church attendance. Normal Sunday
attendance in Britain is projected by Christian Research[123]
to drop by 2020 to 4.2% of the population, less than 1% of which
is attendance at the Established church. These statistics cast
doubt on claims that the bishops speak for any significant constituency,
indeed perhaps even for those in Anglican pews. Since the trend
away from organised religion is predicted to continue, the role
in Parliament of any religious representatives will become increasingly
irrelevant and unjustifiable. Nor should it be overlooked that
the bishops are all male and middle class, and almost exclusively
white. And none are from dioceses in Wales, Scotland or Northern
Ireland. We also reject the self-serving idea they promote that
they provide a moral perspective on matters of ethical importance
on behalf the religious and non-religious alike, regardless of
their location.
7. In March 2010, a survey conducted by ICM Research[124]
showed that three-quarters of the public and 70 per cent of Christians
believe it is wrong for bishops to have reserved places in the
House of Lords.
8. The results of the Consultation Responses
from the House of Lords — Completing the Reform (2001)
showed an overwhelming majority against Church of England bishops
sitting as of right. It concluded: "Calculating on the basis
that those who want an all-elected house do not want bishops (or
anyone else) sitting as of right gives an 85% majority against
the formal representation of the Church of England.
9. It is vitally important that the reformed
Second Chamber should not have any specific religious representation
whether ex-officio or appointed, whether of Christian denominations
or any other faiths. The presence of religious leaders amounts
to double representation of religious interests as many temporal
peers already identify themselves as being religiously motivated.
10. We are therefore pleased that the Draft Bill
contains no proposals to extend religious representation in the
Lords to other denominations/religions. The NSS believe such a
move would not only be unworkable and unpopular, but it would
also carry a high risk of creating resentment in minority communities
that are already sensitive to discrimination, were they not to
be represented. There is a real slippery slope problem in that
there is no obvious point at which to stop extending representation—and
there will be pressure from sub groups within minority religions.
The more faith groups acceded to, the less representative the
slimmed down second chamber would become.
11. If proposals were made to extend religious
representation to other faiths through the appointments process,
there are serious questions about the extent to which such leaders
would be representative of the group they purport to represent.
Opinion polls conducted during the Pope's visit to the UK in 2010
showed that Catholic bishops are at almost complete variance with
Catholics on the same social issues where they seek most strongly
to exert their influence. Only 4-11% of Catholics polled agreed
with the bishops' position on contraception, homosexuality and
abortion.[125]
Similar arguments would equally apply to minority faiths' leaders.
Within religions, there is a whole spectrum of belief and practice.
Treating such groups as homogenous can be particularly detrimental
for women and sexual minorities.
12. In line with proposals for a reduction in
the size of the second chamber, the Draft Bill proposes that the
number of reserved places for Church of England archbishops and
bishops should also be reduced, from 26 to a maximum of 12. In
an upper chamber of 300 members this represents an increase in
the proportion of bishops. The NSS regards this as unacceptable.
We note that the Wakeham Commission sought in 2001 to justify
a reduction by ten of the number of archbishops and bishops on
the manufactured and grossly inaccurate basis of the Church's
claimed "membership" of 25million, based on baptisms.
The Church's actual membership is one twentieth of this number.
In any event, if size-of-membership were a valid criterion for
seats in the Lords, many other organisations (religious and non-religious)
could equally claim such privilege.
13. The Draft Bill proposes that the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester
retain their right to hold a seat in the House of Lords as of
right under the Bishoprics Act 1878. The Government proposes that
the remaining 7 places would be selected by the Church of England.
We regard this as a disturbing development and maintain that the
Church should not gain any greater freedom over the appointment
of its nominees.
14. We are concerned that such a proposal could
herald the introduction of specifically appointed bishops—in
effect full time professional lobbyists not just with access to
ministers but with power to call them to account—who would
be expected to intervene much more than the present bishops and
create a new voting bloc. It is likely they could at times hold
the balance of power. Under such circumstances this undemocratic
group might be able to dictate the parliamentary agenda and therefore
be in a position to make their own demands, particularly on contentious
social issues.
15. We are also very concerned about the exemptions
proposed by the Government for the Lords Spiritual from the tax
deeming provisions, the serious offence provisions and those on
expulsion and suspension. This proposal would mean that in the
most serious of matters, bishops will be accountable to the Church
rather than Parliament. We oppose this unjustifiable privilege
and recommend that if seats are to be reserved for bishops in
a reformed House, they should be accountable to Parliament in
the same way as other members.
16. We believe that the proposals contained within
the Draft Bill concerning the Church of England bishops represent
a missed opportunity for real modernisation and enhanced democracy.
Britain is already the only western democracy left that reserves
seats for clerics in its Parliament—elsewhere only theocracies
have such arrangements. The proposals for their retention will
inevitably give rise to calls for representation to be extended
to other denominations or faiths—a move we regard as deeply
undesirable and entirely unworkable.
17. We therefore urge the Committee to reject
the Draft Bill's proposals to retain the Bench of Bishops. With
a view to creating a more democratic chamber, we ask the Committee
to ensure that reserved seats for Church of England Bishops are
completely removed from the House of Lords.
15 November 2011
Appendix
The compelling arguments against religious representation
in the Lords on the grounds of practicality, democracy and equity
are expanded upon in our report Lords Reform: Why religious
representation should be removed from the House of Lords. http://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/lords-reform.pdf
120 Lords Reform: Why religious representation should
be removed from the House of Lords http://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/lords-reform.pdf
Back
121
For example Lord Avebury pointed out in the Education Bill debate
where the bishops were obstructing some relaxation of mandatory
Collective Worship that it was no coincidence that England and
Wales are the only countries with mandatory (daily) collective
worship in community schools and that the House of Lords is the
only legislature with ex officio clerics. HL Deb 18 July
2011, cGC372. Back
122
HL Deb, 1 July 2011, c484W Back
123
Source: Religious Trends 7, 2007/2008 publ by Christian Research
derived from Table 12.6.2 Back
124
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/survey_on_bishops_icm.pdf Back
125
YouGov / ITV Survey Results, Sample Size: 1636 Catholic Adults,
Fieldwork: 31st August-2nd September 2010 Back
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