Equality Bill [HL]

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, and the noble Lord, Lord Lester, for their comments. I shall try at least to make a case for retaining ““expedient””. Whether I succeed remains to be seen. I must confess that I do not like the amendments because they seem excessively regulatory; in other words, they seek to over-regulate. They do not seem to recognise that often it will be unclear whether a religious organisation can say that a restriction is necessary having regard to the purposes of the organisation. The purposes of local religious groups are often defined in somewhat unspecific terms, and even when they are defined with precision, they may then be defined in general and open terms. For example, the primary function of a parochial church council, which is the legal entity of the Church of England at parish level, is,"““to co-operate with the minister in promoting in the parish””" the word ““parish”” is underlined—"““the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical””." In view of that, it would often be difficult to say in practice that a restriction was necessary in the light of the body’s purposes, even though it would be widely recognised to be appropriate and consistent with those purposes. Secondly, in so far as the purposes of the organisation were clear, it is hard to see how a view could be taken on whether a restriction was necessary without some examination of the tenets of the religion or belief in question as regards the extent to which members of other religions or beliefs should be able to participate in the services in question. I doubt whether, even if they were equipped to do so, courts or tribunals would welcome being called upon to undertake that kind of task. I am told—although many noble Lords will know far better than I—that courts have a well settled practice of declining jurisdiction in matters that turn on interpretations of religious belief, on the grounds that they are non-justiciable. So it seems that the choice of the word ““expedient””, even allowing for the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Lester, that it does not mean very much at all, allows for flexibility in interpretation and is therefore to be welcomed.