My Lords, I think it might help your Lordships’ House, and the progress of debate, if I do not say anything at this time on the other amendments, and respond to these in light of the debate that takes place. That will probably mean that I do not repeat myself.
Government Amendments 9 and 10 clarify the meaning of “compelled” in Clause 2, which provides important protections for religious organisations and their representatives from participating in religious solemnisation of marriages of same-sex couples. They have been tabled in response to concerns raised in your Lordships’ House and in the other place that the protection from compulsion set out in Clause 2 may be narrow because the meaning of compulsion is not clear. A number of noble Lords have raised that concern, not least the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, my noble friend Lady Berridge and the noble Lord, Lord Hylton.
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As the Government have made clear throughout the passage of this Bill, and as I explained when this issue was debated in Committee, the meaning of “compelled” in Clause 2 is broad and clear. In the
Committee discussions on 19 June I made it clear that the protection from compulsion is broad, and it may be helpful if I repeat now some of what I said then as some have asked for that reassurance. The protections from compulsion in Clause 2 include, but are not limited to,
“attempts to use criminal or civil law, contractual provisions or the imposition of any detriment to force a person to carry out the activities protected in Clause 2. The clause provides no specific remedy, but makes clear that no attempt at such compulsion would be upheld.
Less favourable treatment by a public authority of a person or organisation who does something which the Bill makes clear they are legally entitled to do would, in itself, clearly be unlawful and open to judicial review. The imposition of any penalties—civil or criminal—on a religious organisation or representative in order to compel them to opt in, or to participate in, religious solemnisation of same-sex marriages is clearly unlawful under the Bill.
Clause 2 will clearly prevent criminal or civil action being taken against any religious organisation or representatives merely for refusing to undertake acts protected under this clause. This includes, but is not limited to, disciplinary or other action taken in the employment context. In all circumstances a person who has suffered a detriment simply because they have not done one of the acts specified in Clause 2 will be able to rely on the protections in that clause to show that such conduct is unlawful and to obtain a remedy within the context of the particular claim”.—[Official Report, 19/6/13, cols. 281-2.]
That is the case.
However, we have listened. We agreed to consider carefully the concerns raised in your Lordships’ House that the meaning of “compelled” could be made clearer. We have consistently made clear our commitment to ensuring that the religious protections are strong and effective, and to making this clearer where to do so would have no harmful unintended consequences. In line with that commitment, government Amendments 9 and 10 make clear on the face of the Bill that compulsion has the broad meaning we have explained it has. The amendments simply make clear, as I have said, that a person is not to be compelled by any means to undertake an opt-in activity, or to refrain from undertaking an opt-out activity, or to participate in the religious solemnisation of the marriage of a same-sex couple. They use similar wording to that contained in Section 4 of the Abortion Act 1967, which has already been referenced in the course of our debates on Report. That section ensures that nobody can be forced to participate in treatment under that Act to which he or she has a conscientious objection.
I hope the noble Baroness, Lady O’Loan, will agree that the Government’s amendments serve the same purpose as her own Amendment 23. We believe that our amendments provide a little more clarity and I hope she will feel able to accept them. Other amendments are grouped here, but I will respond to those when I wind up the debate in the light of what is said in response to the government amendments and to those others. I beg to move.