Newsline 18 November 2016

Newsline 18 November 2016

This week we were delighted with an excellent feature from BBC Two's 'Daily Politics' on our founder Charles Bradlaugh MP – whose portrait bust we recently unveiled in Parliament.

Our honorary associate Dr Evan Harris, the former Liberal Democrat MP, spoke on the programme about both Bradlaugh's life and the Society's work today. The video about the bust can be seen here, with the full clip (including discussion) available here from 48 minutes in.

Bradlaugh faced an immense struggle to take his seat in the House of Commons, and it's wonderful to see him now getting the recognition he deserves with the portrait bust which is now on prominent display in the Palace of Westminster.

If you're not already a member, help us continue Bradlaugh's work by joining the Society today or giving a donation to our 150th anniversary appeal. Any donation, no matter how much it is worth, is gratefully received.

The highlight of our 150th anniversary year has been our conference in September. We heard from some excellent speakers and all of the fascinating talks are now on YouTube.

If you are a member, we look forward to seeing you at our upcoming AGM.

Our news this week...

NSS calls for UK's public spending watchdog to investigate state handouts to churches

News | Thu, 17th Nov 2016

The National Audit Office has been asked to scrutinise the significant sums of public money that the Government has handed out to wealthy religious organisations.

The National Secular Society has called on the UK's public spending watchdog to investigate Government spending on places of worship – arguing that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being handed to wealthy institutions without justification.

Since 2014 the Government has allocated around £221 million to repairing places of worship, with the vast majority of the money going to the Church of England – which has estimated assets of over £20bn.

In a letter to the National Audit Office, the NSS says vast sums of money are being sent from the Treasury to the Church of England without sufficient checks, accusing the Department for Culture Media and Sport of a "lack of accountability".

Since 2014, the DCMS has allocated £40 million to cathedral repairs as part of the 'First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund'. Responsibility for administering the fund has been handed to the Church of England's Archbishops' Council. The fund was intended to cover "necessary works to the fabric of Anglican and Catholic cathedral buildings and structures in England, which will keep the buildings wind-proof and weather-tight, safe and open." Under the scheme, cathedrals are supposed to demonstrate financial need.

However, grants handed out so far include £200,000 for a new sound system at Hereford Cathedral and payments totalling over £1 million pounds to Salisbury Cathedral, despite the Cathedral already having assets of over £43 million pounds and the diocese in which it is situated having a pool of assets totalling £112 million pounds.

In total, 85 payments have been made to the Church of England despite Anglican cathedrals sitting on combined assets of over £1 billion pounds.

In addition, over £6.5 million pounds of public money has been handed over to Britain's Roman Catholic cathedrals.

Keith Porteous Wood, NSS executive Director, said:

"We don't question the need to preserve these historic and architecturally significant buildings, but we do question whether public money is being spent appropriately. Religious organisations are responsible for maintaining their buildings and we believe public money should only be used to pay for the upkeep of these buildings where there is a demonstrable need to do so.

"The Church of England has the capacity to maintain its buildings so should not be handed public money which is spent without proper oversight, particularly in this time of austerity when those most in need are facing significant cuts to essential services."

In 2012 the Second Church Estates Commissioner Sir Tony Baldry MP said, "The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been incredibly generous towards the Church."

More recently Simon Jenkins argued in the Spectator that "business is booming" in England's cathedrals. "Cathedral turnover of £220 million has almost doubled in a decade," he wrote.

Faith and communities minister Lord Nick Bourne recently began a year-long tour of all 42 of England's cathedrals.

The First World War Centenary Cathedral Repairs Fund represents only a fraction of the public money handed to the Church of England for keeping its buildings in good repair. In addition, up to £42 million a year is available through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme; The Heritage Lottery Fund provides grants of around £25 million annually; and £25 million has been set aside this year for the Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund.

Hackney fails to act over vast number of illegal faith schools

News | Fri, 18th Nov 2016

A senior Hackney Council education official has admitted that there are more illegally operating schools in the borough than legal ones.

Andrew Lee, the Assistant Director of Education Services of the Hackney Learning Trust, said that the council had identified as many as 35 unregistered ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools which are operating illegally, the Independent reported.

This figure compares with 33 schools which are operating legally in the borough.

Mr Lee said the illegal schools "are establishments where our officers have passed by on a number of occasions at various times during the day and have seen a significant number of young people entering and leaving.

"Perhaps 13 of those settings may be linked to some of the 33 registered settings, which would bring the number down somewhat."

However in response to a recent freedom of information request from the National Secular Society, Hackney council said that it had launched a total of just three investigations into unregistered schools operating in the borough.

In the last three years, five referrals have been made to Ofsted or the Department for Education by the borough and despite the very high number of 'schools' believed to be operating illegally, just one has been shut down.

Councillor Abraham Jacobson claimed there were a "maximum" of 12 illegal schools which "tend to move from place to place."

NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans commented: "The right to education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights. All children and young people deserve an education that promotes their individual freedom and empowerment.

"Rather than equipping students for life in modern Britain, these schools are indoctrinating young minds and preparing youngsters only for life in insular religious communities. Local authorities, Ofsted and the Department for Education must act to protect the interests of the welfare of children, irrespective of the religion of their parents. That means ensuring that illegal faith schools are identified and closed down and that pupils currently being left to languish in them are instead provided with a proper education."

Lord Nash wrote to the National Secular Society earlier this month that the Government was "committed to safeguarding children and young people from the risk of harm in out-of-school education settings."

The schools minister said that "there is still more work to do" but added that the "current system is now more robust" and that there had been a "significant escalation in Ofsted investigations of settings and the closure of many of them."

He said that the DfE was "working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to support the prosecution of individuals, where appropriate."

A former pupil of one unregistered school told the Independent that he was subject to "physical and psychological abuse" and that the school "went to extreme length to stop us learning English" and sought to "isolate people from secular society."

Thousands of children are 'missing' from the education system in Hackney – something the National Secular Society has raised with the Government.

Church academy chain to close only secular school

News | Tue, 15th Nov 2016

A Church of England multi-academy trust is set to close the only non-faith school under its control.

The Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust (DEMAT) has 22 schools in Norfolk, including a single community school, the Ten Mile Bank Riverside Academy.

The trust has proposed closing the Academy, meaning pupils from the community school will have to move to a Church of England VC school which is 2 miles away and would involve a walk along the A10.

The nearest non-religious community school is 6 miles away and parents are said to be "up in arms" about the planned closure.

Campaigners trying to save the school told the local paper that "Many people believe that Ten Mile Bank is being threatened with closure because it is a non-faith school – it's the only school in DEMAT's history which is not a faith school."

Ryan Coogan, who chairs a group trying to save the academy, said that "In the last Ofsted inspection this was found to be a 'good' school, children are being turned away from the school as their parents have been told it's over-populated, and as far as we know there are no financial issues."

Stephen Evans, campaigns director of the National Secular Society, said of the plans: "People living in rural areas already face some of the biggest difficulties in finding a secular education for their children.

"No local community wants to lose its school, but where schools need to be consolidated or small schools closed preserving the provision of secular schools should be the priority. Secular schools are appropriate for all pupils, irrespective of their faith or non-faith backgrounds, and the provision of these inclusive schools should be protected.

"Where this process is led by religiously motivated academy trusts rather than local communities, there is a real democratic deficit – with local people left out of the decision making. This episode shows that religious academy trusts can be expected to have very little interest in protecting the ethos of non-religious schools which fall under religious control."

A consultation is now being held on the proposals.

‘Catholic certificate’ breaches admissions rules, says Schools Adjudicator

News | Fri, 18th Nov 2016

The Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) has upheld several complaints against a "Certificate of Catholic Practice" (CCP) required for school admissions.

Schools Week reported that two councils and at least one parent lodged objections with the OSA over the new "Certificate of Catholic Practice" used to evaluate a pupil's religious faith for the purpose of school admissions.

The Catholic Education Service backed the certificates which were considered "The only measure of an applicant's practice", rather than other measures such as mass attendance.

But the Office of the School Adjudicator upheld a series of complaints, criticising the certificates and the lack of clarity about what was needed to obtain one.

Schools Adjudicator Dr Bryan Slater ruled: "It is the duty of the admission authority to construct its admission arrangements and in doing so to comply with the law and the Code. It has failed to do so."

"The School Admissions Code requires the admission authority to revise its admission arrangements within two months of the date of the determination."

The adjudicator concluded that St Paul's Catholic College in Surrey was "relieved of the duty to have regard" to diocesan guidance on admissions because the diocese had failed "to be compliant with statutory provisions within the [Admissions] Code."

Dr Slater said that the admissions policies and the requirement for a Certificate of Catholic Practice (CCP) did not meet the requirement to be "reasonable, clear, objective, procedurally fair, and comply with all relevant legislation".

"Instead of there being clear criteria for being given priority on the grounds of religious practice, the school's admission arrangements give priority to those in possession of a CCP, the issue of which is in the gift of an applicant's parish priest."

The Adjudicator ruled that the requirements for securing a Certificate of Catholic Practice were opaque to parents: "Even those parents who know, because they are 'practising Catholics' 'that Canon Law requires that they attend Mass on a weekly basis from at least 7 years of age' (to use the diocese's words) and who attend Mass in accordance with those requirements cannot be certain that they will be 'granted' (the term used in a letter to me from the diocese) a CCP."

NSS campaigns officer Alastair Lichten said: "Faith schools often devise opaque and complex admissions policies. But schools funded by the taxpayer should be open and accessible to all."

BBC to increase non-Christian religious broadcasting

News | Mon, 14th Nov 2016

After criticising itself for devoting too much of its religious broadcasting to Christianity, the BBC is to consider increasing its religious broadcasting to allow more time for minority faiths.

Religious leaders have been invited by BBC director-general Lord Hall to "join discussions about plans for multi-faith coverage," the Times reported.

The Muslim Council of Britain has asked the BBC to consider broadcasting Islamic prayers.

The Times reported that an increase in broadcasting for minority faiths "would not be at the expense of Christian output" suggesting the BBC will move towards an overall increase in religious programming.

A BBC source told the Independent: "The BBC will do more to represent faiths across the board, and has specifically rejected the notion of in any way diminishing what it does around Christianity."

Another BBC source told the Times that "Faith is remarkably important. The BBC can and must do more to ensure that the important role faith plays is recognised and reflected in our programming."

NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans said: "It's not the job of the BBC to promote religion. By ignoring the fact that religious broadcasting is the least popular genre amongst its viewers, the BBC risks alienating the non-religious majority.

"There are numerous niche channels offering round-the-clock religious programming for people that want that sort of thing. There is no need for the BBC to ramp up religious programming that few people are interested in. Increasing the total amount of religious broadcasting will simply mean producing more content that very few people enjoy or watch.

"There is a place for informative and thought-provoking religious programming that reflects the religion and belief demographics in the UK, but simply broadcasting acts of worship or religious messages would be the totally wrong approach."

This week in the press...

The clip from the 'Daily Politics' about the bust can be seen here, with the full feature (including discussion with our honorary associate Dr Evan Harris) available here from 48 minutes in.

In addition to the article by campaigns director Stephen Evans which was published in TES, NSS Council member Sadikur Rahman was quoted in The Economist on how the state should respond to sharia councils.