All posts tagged: NSS

End regulatory carve outs for religious charities, NSS urges NI

End regulatory carve outs for religious charities, NSS urges NI

Published by Sam Flores

The National Secular Society has urged the Northern Ireland Executive to end regulation exemptions for specific religious charities. NI’s Department for Communities is consulting on amending the Charities Act to “modernise and strengthen” charity regulation. This includes giving the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland powers to issue official warnings to charities where there has been misconduct, mismanagement, or a breach of trust or duty. It also includes the power to direct trustees not to undertake certain actions during a statutory inquiry. However, charities with ‘designated religious status’ will be exempt from these powers. In response to the consultation, the NSS said that instead of exempting these charities, the ‘designated religious status’ should be abolished, pointing out that many of these charities are currently embroiled in safeguarding scandals or have promoted extreme homophobia. It also recommended a broader review of religious charities to prevent the charity sector being used to promote harmful religious ideology. Safeguarding ‘not a priority’ for Presbyterian Church ‘Designated religious’ status is available to religious charities which hold public worship as their principal …

Schools bill risks creating ‘two-tier’ education system, NSS warns

Schools bill risks creating ‘two-tier’ education system, NSS warns

Published by Sam Flores

A Government bill intended to tackle the problem of unregistered faith schools risks creating a ‘two-tier’ system of educational provision, the National Secular Society has warned. Writing to the Government, the NSS raised concerns that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will apply less stringent standards to unregistered faith schools by reclassifying them as ‘non-school’ independent educational institutions (IEI). Currently, if an institution provides full time education to more than five pupils of compulsory school age, it is legally defined as a school. Any institution which meets the legal definition of a school must register with the Department for Education, although some deliberately evade registration in order to teach a very narrow, religion-based curriculum without oversight. Under changes set to be introduced by the bill, some institutions which provide full time education would not be classified as schools, and would instead be registered as ‘non-school’ IEIs. The NSS said this potentially includes yeshivas – Jewish scripture schools for boys – a significant number of which operate covertly as illegal unregistered schools, or use loopholes to …

NSS welcomes proposals for more ‘pluralist’, ‘objective’ RE in NI

NSS welcomes proposals for more ‘pluralist’, ‘objective’ RE in NI

Published by Sam Flores

The National Secular Society has welcomed proposals to make religious education in Northern Ireland more pluralist and inclusive – but has warned this cannot be achieved without fundamental reforms. The Department of Education (DoE) in NI is consulting on its review of the religious education (RE) core syllabus, following a UK Supreme Court ruling that current RE arrangements breach human rights. In November, the court unanimously allowed the appeal in the case of JR87 – a daughter and father from Belfast who argued Christian-based RE and collective worship in NI’s schools are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court found the current RE syllabus amounts to indoctrination. This included encouraging children to accept ideas such as creation being “the gift of God” as “absolute truths”. The NSS responded to the consultation stressing the need for a reform of RE, and to call for collective worship (CW) and relationships and sex education (RSE) to also be addressed. NSS calls for end to requirement for RE to be “based upon the Holy Scriptures” The …

NSS welcomes inclusion of religion in grooming gangs inquiry

NSS welcomes inclusion of religion in grooming gangs inquiry

Published by Sam Flores

The National Secular Society has welcomed an independent inquiry into ‘grooming gangs’ which will examine how religion and culture have played a role in responses to group-based child exploitation and abuse. The inquiry was launched last year in response to multiple cases of groups of men sexually abusing, raping and trafficking children around the UK. A Serious Case Review into one incident found a significant proportion of people convicted were of “Pakistani and/or Muslim heritage”. But a national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse in January found “many examples of organisations” avoiding examining the disproportionality in ethnic or cultural factors, while police forces reported local authorities “would discourage them from publicising the successful conviction of perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation due to fears of raising tensions”. The inquiry is consulting on its draft terms of reference, which say it should examine “how ethnicity, religion or culture played a role in responses at a local and national level, as well as other issues of denial”. It will also “consider the background (including ethnicity, …

NSS: Tory pledge on integration must end faith based admissions

NSS: Tory pledge on integration must end faith based admissions

Published by Sam Flores

A pledge from the Conservative Party to end the use of ‘protected characteristics’ in admissions should mean schools can no longer select pupils based on religion, the National Secular Society has said. In a speech on British integration this week, Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch MP said protected characteristics “will not be used as criteria for hiring, promotion, admissions or procurement”. Most types of state-funded faith schools can have admissions policies which prioritise children based on their family’s religion when oversubscribed. Religion or belief is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. The NSS, which campaigns to end religious discrimination in state schools, said ensuring school admissions treat families of all religions and beliefs equally “would be a welcome move towards greater social cohesion and integration.” Faith-based school admissions fostering religious, ethnic and socio-economic segregation, campaigners say Although discrimination based on religion or belief is generally illegal, exemptions in the Equality Act allow faith schools to give their highest priority admissions criteria to children whose families can demonstrate sufficient religiosity – for example, …

NSS report shows “broken charity system in need of repair”, MP says

NSS report shows “broken charity system in need of repair”, MP says

Published by Sam Flores

An MP has called for a “review into charity law and regulation”, following recommendations raised in a National Secular Society report on religious charities promoting misogyny. In an adjournment debate yesterday, Labour MP for North West Cambridgeshire Sam Carling highlighted how the NSS’s ‘Mission and Misogyny’ report is “full” of examples of “small religious organisations active in the UK that expose children to horrific teachings, particularly about women and girls”. Responding on behalf of the Government, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips said she will follow up on the issue with the Charity Commission. Carling also raised the Mission and Misogyny report at Prime Minister’s Questions in December, and Liberal Democrat peer Lorely Burt asked an oral question about it in November. Watch a clip from the debate: Charity Commission demonstrates “serious pattern of failing to take action” During the debate, which focussed on safeguarding in small religious organisations, Carling said while many religious organisations do “brilliant work to support people”, the examples raised in the NSS’s …

NSS welcomes move to abolish Northern Ireland’s blasphemy laws

NSS welcomes move to abolish Northern Ireland’s blasphemy laws

Published by Sam Flores

The National Secular Society has said a move to abolish Northern Ireland’s blasphemy laws would send a “powerful signal” of support for free speech. Alliance Party MLA Connie Egan has today submitted an amendment to the Justice Bill which would repeal the common law offences of ‘blasphemy’ and ‘blasphemous libel’ in NI. The move follows campaigning from the NSS, which last year called for the Minister of Justice to repeal the blasphemy laws as part of the bill. NI is the only part of the UK that still has blasphemy laws. They were abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and in Scotland in 2021. The Republic of Ireland abolished its blasphemy laws in 2020. The Alliance Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, and Sinn Féin are all understood to endorse the repeal of blasphemy laws. The NSS has argued blasphemy laws are incompatible with fundamental human rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief, and can be invoked to silence criticism or ridicule of religion in Northern Ireland. In 2014, …

NSS: Scotland RE bill ‘makes matters worse’ for children’s rights

NSS: Scotland RE bill ‘makes matters worse’ for children’s rights

Published by Sam Flores

The National Secular Society has warned a bill passed by the Scottish Parliament “makes matters worse” for children and parents who wish to withdraw from religious observance (RO) in schools. This week, the Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Bill passed in a final Holyrood vote, at 66 votes to 51. The bill means pupils’ views will be prioritised if they wish to remain in RO against their parents’ wishes – but it does not introduce a right of withdrawal pupils can exercise themselves. The NSS has raised concerns this could leave pupils, especially those in Catholic schools, vulnerable to pressure to remain in RO even if they and their parents want them to be withdrawn. The NSS campaigned throughout the bill’s progress for the law requiring RO to be abolished and for an independent right of withdrawal for pupils if the law is left in place in place. Children’s rights groups concerned about lack of pupil opt-out An amendment to include a right of withdrawal for pupils was …

Free speech at stake in Quran-burning case, NSS warns

Free speech at stake in Quran-burning case, NSS warns

Published by Sam Flores

Extremists could be handed the “power to determine the limits of lawful expression” if a man who burned a Quran outside the Turkish consulate has a conviction reinstated, the National Secular Society has warned. The High Court will on Tuesday hear an appeal from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to overturn a decision to quash the conviction of Hamit Coskun, who was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence in June. In February Coskun, a Turkish asylum seeker of Armenian and Kurdish heritage, burned a Quran outside the Turkish Consulate in London while shouting “Islam is religion of terrorism”. He said his demonstration was a protest against policies which are turning Turkey into a “base for radical Islamists”. He was then attacked by two men, one armed with a knife. The NSS, which is co-funding Coskun’s defence, said the law “should never be used to enforce religious orthodoxy”. Burning a book can amount to “legitimate political protest” Coskun was originally found guilty of an offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act …

UN endorses NSS recommendations on clerical abuse in Spain

UN endorses NSS recommendations on clerical abuse in Spain

Published by Sam Flores

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has endorsed National Secular Society recommendations to tackle clerical abuse in Spain. The committee oversees the Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 34 of which enshrines a child’s right to protection from sexual abuse. An estimated 440,000 Spaniards, or 1.1% of the population, have been subjected to sexual abuse by clerics or laypeople in the Catholic church. In written evidence and oral testimony given before the committee in Geneva in 2024, the NSS called for: an end to religious exemptions to reporting abuse; the creation of an independent body to enforce reparations payable by the Church; and the lifting of statutes of limitations in abuse cases. Statutes of limitations are legal time limits within which a civil or criminal case must be brought. Victims of abuse take, on average, 33 years to come forward, meaning statutes of limitations often prevent claims being brought. In newly published concluding observations, the committee has recommended the Spanish Government end “any exemption for clerics from reporting abuse, including …