Written question asked by Roger Williams (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 12 July 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 14 July 2005. It was answered by Hazel Blears (Labour) on Thursday, 21 July 2005 on behalf of the Home Office.

Freemasons

Question: (4) what estimate he has made of the numbers of members of the (a) police and (b) judiciary who are members of a masonic lodge who have not declared their interest.

Answer: Voluntary arrangements for the declaration of freemasonry membership have been established for the judiciary and the police service.For the judiciary, all first time successful candidates for appointment must, as a condition of appointment, declare their freemasonry status prior to appointment and must also declare any later admission to them. No central register of freemasonry membership is held.For the police, there is no statutory basis for the registers which are held internally by forces. We do not monitor centrally which forces continue to administer such registers. It is not possible to estimate the number of members who failed to declare their interest.Any requests for information held on registers would have to be considered by the force concerned on a case-by-case basis. Decisions on whether information should be released are the responsibility of the public authority receiving the request, acting in accordance with the principles of the Freedom of Information Act.

Secondary information