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Equality Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 163:"After Clause 61, insert the following new clause—"    ““MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENT (1)   Nothing in this Part shall make it unlawful for a charity to require members, or persons wishing to become members, to make a statement which asserts or implies membership or acceptance of a religion or belief. (2)   Subsection (1) shall apply to the imposition of a requirement by a charity only if— (a)   the charity, or an organisation of which the charity is part, first imposed a requirement of the kind specified in subsection (1) before 18th May 2005, and (b)   the charity or organisation has not ceased since that date to impose a requirement of that kind.”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, noble Lords will remember that we had a considerable debate in Committee about the need to ensure that the Scout and Guide associations were protected in this Bill. I expressed my complete agreement with that intention, and undertook to discuss the matter with the Scout and Guide associations. That has been done. It has also been our intention that the associations should be protected through Clauses 59 and 60 of the Bill, but, in discussion with the Scout and Guide associations, it became clear that, because of the particular nature of their foundation situation, the practice of requiring members to say the Promise could possibly be threatened by the Bill. We have accepted that this is the case, although, following those discussions, we do not consider that in other respects their activities are adequately protected by the Bill. We will be ready to review the situation in the Discrimination Law Review or the single Equality Bill, should difficulties arise at a later date. The specific effect of this amendment is to allow the Scouts and Guides to continue requiring their members to say the Promise. This requirement is a necessity if the associations are to remain members of the international movements they represent. In most circumstances, a charity that wished to restrict its membership would do so by ensuring that a charitable instrument adequately reflected its intentions, and it would then be covered by Clause 60. In this case, however, because the establishment of the Scouts and Guides was made by Royal Charter, we felt an additional exemption was justified. This will equally protect any other charities that may exist that are in similar circumstances. This is a narrow exception with a particular purpose, which I believe will be widely accepted and, I hope, endorsed by this House. I beg to move.