My Lords, I support Amendment 16 of the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, and I do so very much as a doctor. In another place at Report, the Minister, Mr Hugh Robertson, rejected the suggestion that space should be made for registrars with a conscientious objection to officiating at same-sex marriage ceremonies. This will mean that once the Bill is passed, those registrars will be confronted with the choice of either acting in violation of their conscience or losing their livelihood and vocation. The Minister said:
“I do not believe it is appropriate or right to allow marriage registrars to opt out of conducting same-sex marriages either permanently or on a transitional basis. Like it or not, they are public servants who should carry out the will of Parliament, and allowing exemptions according to conscience in my view”—
said the Minister—
“sets a difficult precedent”.—[Official Report, Commons, 20/5/13; cols. 963-64.]
I have to say to that Minister, like it or not, that there are already precedents in this country to accommodate the consciences of public servants who are paid by the taxpayer, as the noble Baroness has already said. Quite rightly, the conscientious objections of doctors who are public servants and paid for by the taxpayer are respected so that they do not have to perform abortions if this violates their consciences. This has been operative since 1967. No one ever told me as a doctor that I must choose between being willing to act in violation of my conscience to perform an abortion or being sacked and losing my livelihood and vocation. I was always rather thankful for that arrangement.
Moreover it is not just public servant doctors whose consciences are protected. Teachers have the same kind of protection and for much longer. Quite rightly, the law makes space for atheist teachers so that they do not have to lead school assemblies or teach religious education. We do not tell atheist teachers that they must either be willing to lead a religious assembly or lose their livelihood or vocation. That again would be deeply illiberal.
It seems to me that the Minister, certainly in another place, has a problem. There is no new precedent in the excellent amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege. It is simply a continuation and reaffirmation of the very important liberal, democratic principle that we allow mainstream conscientious objections of public servants.
The other point that the Minister made during Report in another place was that the Government had received no representations from the national panel for registration asking for conscientious objections. Moreover, the panel has sent noble Lords a briefing ahead of today’s debate which repeats that very point. I have to say I find it deeply disturbing that a body, which is, I presume, supposed to represent the interests of all registrars should be content to affirm the passage of legislation that will effectively say to registrars with a conscientious objection, “Choose between either being willing to violate your conscience or lose your job”. If it is supposed to represent the interests of all registrars, it does not seem to be doing a very good job. This has been underlined by paragraph 25 of the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the Ladele case, which states:
“Some other United Kingdom local authorities”—
that is, other than Islington, where Miss Ladele worked—
“took a different approach, and allowed registrars with a sincerely held religious objection to the formation of civil partnerships to opt out of designation as civil partnership registrars”.
Exactly the same point was made by paragraph 23 of the Employment Appeal Tribunal document on the same case. These other authorities found it necessary to make these accommodations with respect to officiating at civil partnership ceremonies only because there is a widespread conscientious objection problem, which obviously applies equally to same-sex marriage, about which the national panel appears to be unaware.
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Moreover, on 14 February, Mark Jones, the solicitor for Lillian Ladele, gave evidence to the Commons committee and made it plain that he was aware of a number of registrars who had major concerns about the implication of the change in the law. We also know it is a big issue because of the Lillian Ladele case itself. The courts found against her because they were asked to interpret a law that did not explicitly provide a conscience exemption. It did, however, provide scope for an exemption in practice because registrars are separately designated marriage registrars and civil partnership registrars. The reason why Ladele got into difficulty was because her employer insisted that all registrars were designated as both marriage and civil partnership registrars. If marriage is redefined, there will be absolutely no chance of protection for registrars without Amendment 16 because there will not be a separate different-sex marriage and same-sex marriage designation—there will just be a marriage designation.
If the Government were to reject Amendment 16, in order to be logically consistent they would have to end the practice of making space for atheist teachers and doctors whose consciences do not permit them to perform abortions. That would be unthinkably illiberal
and so, too, would it be for us not to pass Amendment 16. I strongly commend this amendment to the Committee and urge the Government to support it.