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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 95A: 95A: After Clause 77, insert the following new Clause— ““Abolition of religious offence Section 2 of the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860 (c. 32) is hereby repealed.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, we are moving to a different topic in this strange Bill. This amendment is put forward by my noble friend Lord Avebury to introduce a new clause to abolish Section 2 of the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860. In case your Lordships are not wholly aware of the Act, I should say that it is used very rarely. The statistics produced indicate two convictions in 2005, four in 2004, one in 2003, one in 2002, nothing in 2001, and so on. Your Lordships can see that, even if these statistics are correct—and it seems unlikely that they are completely correct—this provision is very rarely used. In any event, Section 4A of the Public Order Act 1986 covers all the circumstances in which this offence could be brought. Section 2 of the 1860 Act, which we seek to abolish, deals with, "““riotous, violent or indecent behaviour in any Cathedral Church, Parish or District Church or Chapel of the Church of England … or in any Chapel of any Religious Denomination or … in any Place of Religious Worship duly certified under the Registered Places of Worship Act 1855””." Individuals are enjoined not to, "““molest, let, disturb, vex, or trouble, or by any other unlawful means disquiet or misuse any Preacher duly authorised to preach therein””." This section was last used following the interruption of the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sermon during the Easter Sunday service a couple of years ago, as your Lordships may recall. Two protestors, Mr Cordle and Mr Spotswood from Sheffield, unfurled a banner while interrupting the church service. They invited the most reverend Primate to join a public debate on Sharia law. As has happened with almost every other case that has been brought in modern times under the Act, the charges were dropped when the men appeared in front of magistrates who bound them over under a power of magistrates—it is centuries old—to bind people over to keep the peace. They were bound over for 12 months in the sum of £100. The defendants said that they were protesting against the millions of Christians persecuted under Sharia law in places such as Nigeria and Pakistan. It was not as if they were supporting Sharia law; they were speaking against it. The question is whether we should still have a law like this dating back to 1860 on the statute book. It mainly reflects Christian places of worship but, unfortunately, synagogues, gurdwaras and mosques are often desecrated. However, unless they have, most unusually, been registered under the Act to which I referred earlier, no offence is committed under Section 2—the section we seek to abolish. The whole issue was considered by the Select Committee on Religious Offences, which reported recently. It was its combined view that the offence should be repealed without replacement. The committee drew to the attention of the House the fact that, despite considerable effort, it unearthed details of only three convictions in relation to Christian churches, and in two of them the defendants were finally convicted of a different offence. The other person who was convicted was Mr Peter Tatchell and there is no doubt that he could have been convicted under other offences. The amendment would introduce a new clause to abolish what we say is an out-of-date and unnecessary Act and an offence that is limited in scope, both legally and practically. I beg to move.