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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Turner, and I shall take an example from the Scouts to illustrate the problem. I was sent a letter by a school teacher giving a practical example. He said that he was asked to take over the running of a Beaver Scout group because the previous leader had moved out of the area and his son attended the group. He was a primary teacher and so had the relevant skills. He agreed to do so. He made it clear that he did not attend church, but was told that it was not about that. The Scouts claim that they are open to all religions and backgrounds, so he thought it was all right. However, the application form said that although they do not discriminate on religious, ethnic or social backgrounds, they made it clear that unless he belonged to a religious body, he could not be accepted. He informed the leaders that he would provide a multicultural approach to the group, being supportive of any faiths or beliefs but without following any of them, as he would expect a Christian leader to support a child, for example, of Islamic faith within the group. But they refused to accept that. They said that an atheist could not provide spiritual guidance to children, nor support the children’s own faith because an atheist has no values, moral or otherwise. They asked him to claim himself to be a non-practising Christian so that they could accept him, and he refused. I give that example to show that even in the Scout movement, if one accepted this amendment, there would be interesting legal problems about whether it was necessary for the ethos and so on. It seems to me to show that the Government have moved in the right direction, to the right point, but should not go any further.