Government, religious groups, and civil society

We want a state with no discrimination or privilege on grounds of religion or belief and with truly inclusive approaches to public policy. We therefore want government and others to recognise the value of communities as a whole (rather than religious ‘communities’) and the contributions made by humanists and the non-religious at large as well as those from religious people. We want communities where people of all different backgrounds and beliefs engage and work with each other for the benefit of all. Only in this context can people be positively empowered to make choices about their lives.

Policy summary

Problem:
Governments often privilege religious groups over others in policy and in official recognition.

Consequences:
This gives religious groups a stronger hand in shaping public policy in a way that distorts it more in line with what they want than what the public would want.

Our policy:
We want religious and humanist groups to be seen as part of civil society like any other voluntary associations and given no special place in public policy. Where policy consultations or government work does have a legitimate reason for involving religious groups, we want them to involve humanist ones on the same basis.

Recommendation:
We want the governments of the UK and local authorities to recognise the value of communities as a whole and treat religious groups on the same footing as humanist and civic groups, and the wider public.

In recent years, we have particularly focused on public funding for religious groups, and programmes that promote faith per se; governments’ approach to ‘interfaith’ and ‘dialogue’ initiatives; the localism agenda; and the need for inclusive ceremonies.

In depth

Government and faith communities

Subsequent and current governments have encouraged religious groups to take on partnership roles in their local communities. Insofar as these arrangements are no more than what would be offered to any local group with strong links with the local community, such moves can be acceptable. However, there is strong evidence to suggest that what the government has intended amounts to new privileges for religion, such as a distinct role in providing public services on behalf of the state at national, regional and local levels. We work for a state with no privilege or discrimination on grounds of religion or belief and so find this unacceptable. In terms of social cohesion initiatives, religious groups and communities have been singled out by government as having a special importance and being in need of special attention and assistance, mostly in isolation from other communities and almost always to the exclusion of the non-religious – normally under the remit of ‘faith’ or ‘interfaith’ strategies.

The previous Government’s Independent Faith Engagement Review, titled Does government ‘do God?’, also known as the Bloom Review was published in 2023. It called for a wide-scale shift to enhance and deepen how the Government works with faith communities.

In March 2026, the UK Government published Protecting What Matters: Towards a More Confident, Cohesive, and Resilient United Kingdom, which set out a strategy to strengthen social cohesion. The strategy proposes working closely with faith and belief groups to improve faith and belief literacy in government and in wider society, and using education to promote social cohesion.

Interfaith and dialogue initiatives

‘Interfaith’ is an established term often used by religious people. Taken literally, it excludes people of no faith. But over half the people in Britain, including all humanists, do not identify with any ‘faith’. In practice, and for many years, humanists have worked alongside religious people both at a national level and in local ‘interfaith’ groups. In some cases these groups have changed their names or amended their terms of reference to reflect their inclusive approach. In general we prefer terms such as ‘faith and belief’ or ‘dialogue’ – Humanists UK, for example, has a dedicated‘ Dialogue Officer’ and Dialogue Network. In 2018 the Three Faiths Forum renamed itself to the Faith and Belief Forum in order to make itself inclusive in this way, and we work in partnership with them where possible.

As humanists we believe in viewing other people firstly as fellow human beings, with religion or belief just one element of personal identity. Working together with people who are different can help build bridges and break down barriers between communities. But social cohesion and other community initiatives must build on the contribution that all individuals and groups in the community can make. Where there are legitimate reasons for working with communities identified by beliefs, then these must also be open to humanists and other non-religious people.

We therefore support humanists becoming involved in constructive dialogue and joint initiatives involving people from different religion and belief backgrounds. They can contribute to building a healthy secular society.

The Bloom Review

In April 2023, the UK Government published the report of its Independent Faith Engagement Review, titled Does government ‘do God?’ . While Humanists UK welcomed some of the report’s recommendations, it expressed deep concern that many other recommendations are completely out of step with modern Britain, affording religion and religious groups unwarranted special treatment.

These recommendations include a ‘Faith Partnership Charter’ based on local authorities; a Government ‘Faith Champion’ with their own ‘well-resourced’ Office; and more high-level engagement between Government with faith leaders – all constructed in ways that exclude the non-religious. It recommends that the Faith Champion should have an Office ‘rebuilt from the current faith team in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’, when in fact that Department has a faith and belief team, not a faith team. That team includes a civil servant responsible for humanists.

Many of the problems stem from the premise of the review being fundamentally flawed, focusing as it did exclusively on religion and excluding the non-religious. This is despite most people belonging to no religion, our population is set to become even more non-religious over time, religious groups are civil society groups like any others, and religious people are no more generous than others.

The previous government did not respond to the review which is now being considered by the Labour Government.

What we’re doing

We are committed to working with those of other beliefs for the common good. We are active members of the Faith and Belief Policy Collective hosted by the Faith and Belief Forum, the Religion and Belief Literacy Standard Advisory Group. We are an active participant in the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government (MHCLG)’s regularly held Faith and Belief Roundtables. In Wales, we attend the Faith Communities Forum – albeit as an ‘associate’ member on account of our not being a religion In Northern Ireland we attend the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action’s Community Faiths’ Forum, which is funded by the Department of Communities. Our sister charity Humanist Society Scotland is involved in similar work in Scotland.
In 2019 MHCLG renamed its Faith Team to be its Faith and Belief Team and appointed a civil servant specifically responsible for humanists – alongside others for different religions. We have worked closely with them and others in that team ever since.
In 2017 the Civil Service launched a Faith and Belief Network, headed by a Faith and Belief Champion. She spoke at the 2019 launch of our section Humanists in Government, which has been officially recognised as the civil service-wide network for humanists.
We support inclusive strategies to develop social cohesion in the community and are involved in promoting social cohesion both at a strategic and a grassroots level, with efforts aimed in particular at ensuring the non-religious in the community are engaged with by government and others. We work with local humanists and the non-religious to contribute to local authorities’ work around both ‘religion and belief’ equality issues, and projects of inter-cultural dialogue and good relations.
We work independently and with our supporters in parliament, as well as individuals and organisations from across the equalities field, to develop policy and to lobby government and other decision makers on these issues. We responded to the 2020 call for evidence on the Bloom Review and publicised our concern about some of its proposals.
We highlight and protest the discriminatory nature of a number of state-funded projects that in effect promote religious beliefs, groups, and leaders to the expense of others.
We enjoy a good relationship with the Faith Minister, and we meet regularly with officials to discuss our perspective on the Government’s communities strategy including on the Bloom Review as well as wider issues.
Our own Dialogue Officer has engaged in a number of inclusive projects with individuals from a range of different faiths, and set up the Humanists UK Dialogue Network.

Appendix: Past work on this issue

In the 1970s, we were co-founders of the Standing Council on Inter-Faith Dialogue in Education (SCIFDE) together with Jews and Christians; along with religious groups, we also co-founded of the Social Morality Council (later called the Norham Foundation), of which Humanists UK’s then Executive Director was chair.
In 2011 we submitted written evidence to Parliament’s Public Administration Select Committee’s inquiry into the Big Society, and our Chief Executive gave oral evidence (see also the transcript). We also made submissions on equality in commissioning and on the Localism Bill.
Since then we’ve continued to work to highlight and protest the discriminatory nature of a number of state-funded projects that in effect promote religious beliefs, groups, and leaders to the expense of others, with the example of the 2022 Faith New Deal Fund which sought to fund only ‘faith-based’ organisations to deliver projects.