Equality Bill

My Lords, I join my voice with those of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Liverpool and the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton, in opposing this amendment. I understand the position that the noble Baroness, Lady Turner of Camden, has put to the Committee. It is not a new position, it has been expressed before, and she has certainly been admirably consistent in voicing that opinion, but many of us in your Lordships' House feel that anything which is done to dilute the character and ethos of church schools would be a regrettable mistake. They contribute an enormous amount to the life of this country but also to specific communities of the sort that the right reverend Prelate has just described. I am a governor of a church school and I send my children to church schools. In the distant past I worked in the voluntary-aided as well as the maintained sector of education, so I have seen these schools at first hand and know the contribution that they make. If you were to hold up a mirror to contemporary Britain today, you would probably see its diversity more clearly in church schools than anywhere else. In the schools that I visit regularly, I see a range of children from many backgrounds; immigrant backgrounds, almost by definition. In an average Catholic school you will see children from African, Asian, Filipino and Polish backgrounds as well as from indigenous British backgrounds, but often with Irish antecedents in them. These are places we should be proud of because here we are living out integration and tolerance. Indeed, the faith schools that the right reverend Prelate has done so much to promote in the city of Liverpool, and which have been such a remarkable achievement, also have an interdenominational character. In a city with a sectarian past one must see that as a remarkable achievement, of which we should be very proud. Instead of celebrating the extraordinary contribution of schools with a religious ethos, over the years we seem to have had a sustained attempt to dilute their character. I remember the debate in which I took part in your Lordships' House where attempts were made to impose quotas on church schools. I am glad that the Government have resisted any attempt in this legislation to change the admissions’ procedures in church schools. The Government should be commended for that. The Education Acts of 1944 and 1988 are the Acts on which this builds in that respect. To alter the character of the church schools in this other respect by changing the regulations in regard to the employment of staff is inadmissible and we should not do it. The noble Baroness cited regulations from Europe as justification for her amendments. But it is probably worth reminding the Committee of Protocol 1 of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It provides that the state shall in exercising its functions in relation to education and teaching, ""respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religion and philosophical convictions"." It is impossible to see how they will be able to do that if the character of these schools is to be changed in the way in which the noble Baroness would wish. In 1944, a historic bargain was made between the churches and the state. The Education Act 1944 still stands as testimony of one of the great pieces of legislation of the 20th century. It opened the door to people from the kind of background that I came from to have the opportunity of higher education. But it also provided the opportunity for the churches to give educational opportunities to children who were often from deprived and poor neighbourhoods. As part of that historic bargain, the churches had to spend in those days three-quarters of the costs involved in the capital costs of building such schools. Even today it amounts to 10 per cent. The churches give the state this huge piece of collateral in order to help it in the education of children. That these schools are popular cannot be in dispute. Most neighbourhoods have waiting lists for such schools. It surely is not a coincidence that the former Prime Minister and the Leader of the Official Opposition both chose such an option. Indeed, it was recently reported that so has the Foreign Secretary. There is nothing to criticise about that. We should be asking why people make those choices. This is something from which we should learn and uphold. We should be proud of diversity in education. The 1944 Act was part of the legislative programme of the national Government. RA Butler was Secretary of State for Education and Chuter Ede, Labour Member of Parliament, was his PPS. Consensus was reached before that legislation passed through both Houses of Parliament, which is probably why it has stood the test of time. Archbishop Griffin, the then Archbishop of Westminster, was in the Strangers’ Gallery in the other place on the day the legislation achieved its Third Reading. He sent RA Butler a copy of Butler’s Lives of the Saints. There are many parents in this country who would agree that the legislation has given their children many blessings. Anything we do to change the character of such schools would be an error. Another reason why we should resist this amendment concerns the trust deeds of these schools and the responsibilities that they place, through charity laws, on the governors of such schools. We would be placing them in a position where they could not fulfil the obligations laid on them in those trust deeds if we were to accept these amendments. For those reasons, I hope that they will be resisted.