The British Humanist Association (BHA) today submitted their formal response to a consultation regarding the ‘refresh’ of the Compact. The Compact is an agreement between the Government and third sector regarding a variety of issues including volunteers and Black and Minority Ethnic community groups. The consultation concerns a redraft of the document, which aims to renew and update the existing Compact.
After discussions with the Department of Communities and Local Government, the BHA was hoping that the renewed Compact would tackle the issues that the scrapped Charter of Excellence for Religious Organisations aimed to solve. However, the BHA believes that these problems will continue unless more work is done and changes made to the draft Compact.
Pepper Harow, BHA Campaigns Officer, explained, “The Compact fails to cover the specific problems of public service delivery by religious organisations. These problems include the possibility of service users and employees being discriminated against because religion or belief based organisations have exemptions in equality law, and the fact that public services should never be delivered in a way which allows organisations to proselytise to service users or deliver services in an openly religious setting.
Although we continue to push for legislative change in these areas, we were hoping that the Compact would cover these issues to give service users at least some protection. Our response to the consultation strongly makes these points.”
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For further comment or information, contact Pepper Harow on 020 7462 4992.
The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and discrimination based on religion or belief.
The BHA’s response to the consultation is available to download.