Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 191A:"Page 31, line 28, at end insert—" ““(1A)   For the avoidance of doubt the prohibition in subsection (1) shall include— (a)   requiring a registrar or any other person to arrange, officiate at or otherwise participate in the registration of a civil partnership under the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (c. 33), (b)   requiring a registrar or any other person to arrange, solemnise or otherwise participate in the registration of a marriage involving a person whose gender has become the acquired gender under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (c. 7), (c)   requiring any person to participate in any placement under section 18 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (c. 38) (placement for adoption by agencies), or any application under section 49 of that Act (application for adoption) where the placement is with, or the application is made by, a couple who are not a married couple, or one applicant is part of a couple within the meaning of section 144(4)(b) of   the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (general interpretation etc.), where the person concerned has a conscientious objection on the basis of his religion or belief.”” The noble Baroness said: The amendment would extend the principle of Clause 54 to create a conscience clause for civil marriage registrars and social work staff when they have a conscientious objection based on their religion or belief. My amendment would prevent them being forced to take part in homosexual civil partnership ceremonies, in weddings involving transsexual people, and in adoptions involving unmarried or homosexual couples. As Members of the Committee know, this is not the first time these issues have been raised. The late Baroness Blatch, whom we miss so much, called for a conscience clause for adoption staff in the Local Government Bill in 2003. I in turn raised the issue of registrars last year during passage of the Gender Recognition and Civil Partnership Bills. I know that some people get very angry when these issues are raised. Believe me, it would be easier for me not to raise them. But surely in a free society people should be entitled to hold different views, even when they relate to cohabitation, homosexuality or transsexualism. Many people are motivated in their views by sincere religious conscience. These are extremely controversial issues in our society about which people have genuine and deeply held concerns. Parliament has legislated in recent years to change the law in these areas, but it did so—as we all remember—in the face of considerable opposition from the public. That opposition came from sincere people, often Christians and Church leaders, but also from non-Christians, who conscientiously believed that what Parliament was doing was immoral, counter to the sanctity of marriage and detrimental to the family—which is, as many of us believe, the backbone of our society. Such people cannot support civil partnerships because they believe that they give marriage-like status to what they consider immoral relationships. They cannot support transsexual marriages, where one person has changed sex in law, because they actually do not believe it is possible to change sex in fact. They cannot support placing children for adoption with unmarried or homosexual couples, because they earnestly believe that it can never be in the best interests of children to do so when there are many married couples willing to adopt. For most of these people, the issue of freedom of conscience does not arise, as they are not required to be involved in any of these issues. But what if you hold these views and you work in a registry office? What if you work in social services? Sadly, we know what sometimes happens: you are told that you have to take part; pressure is exerted on you to go against your conscience; you can be intimidated because of your religious views; indeed, you might even be threatened with dismissal. This is not merely hypothetical or theoretical—there are examples. Angela Sartin is a superintendent registrar at Bristol City Council. She has worked for the service for 19   years. When she joined, there was not the remotest prospect that her job would ever involve uniting homosexual couples, but since the passage of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, she has been told that this is what she must do. She has recently been advised that guidelines from the General Registrar’s Office indicate that the duty to provide civil partnerships is on the   local authority, rather than on each individual registrar. Statutory officers do not have to take part. But this does not extend to Miss Sartin’s position. She is therefore applying for a demotion and taking a £10,000 a year pay cut, in order to be able to stay within the service and retain freedom of conscience not to take part in civil partnerships. Others have left the service. There are many long-serving people around the country who are not happy; but they are leaving the service quietly. They are being accused of homophobia and bigotry and they doubtless feel intimidated. Clause 54 protects all religious beliefs, not just those that are politically correct. Are people whose religion teaches that homosexual practice is wrong protected by the Bill, or not? It is a natural extension of the principle of the Bill to say that we will seek to protect freedom of religious conscience for people like these. The issue of transsexual weddings, addressed in paragraph (b) of the amendment, is more complicated. Under the Gender Recognition Act 2004, the registrar will have no right to know whether a person who applies to marry has changed sex. But even if the registrar did know, there would be no right to withdraw from officiating. If a registrar refused to issue the marriage notice, the result would be instant dismissal. I turn to paragraph (c) of my amendment. The Committee may recall that the late Lady Blatch cited the   case of the long-serving adoption workers, Dawn   Jackson and Norah Ellis—a case which made the national press at the time. Sadly, this is not the only case. Dawn and Norah worked in the adoption service of a local authority. Between them they had 50 years’ experience in adoption and fostering, but because they had a conscientious objection to same-sex couples adopting, they were forced out of their jobs. Some noble Lords will point to the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. They will   say that any employee already has religious non-discrimination rights. However, if they are so effective, why are religious people being forced out of jobs in registrars’ offices even as we speak? Clearly, the 2003 regulations are not enough. Unless we do something specifically to protect these posts, Christians, Muslims and others with traditional religious views will increasingly be forced out of these professions in a form of religious apartheid. I beg to move.