Public service reform

We want inclusive, accessible, secular public services with no discrimination in employment or service delivery, and human rights protection for service users.

What’s happening?

Across the board, publicly-funded, comprehensive and statutory public services, to which all citizens have an entitlement, are in the process of extensive and significant reform.  The Government is introducing new suppliers of public services and this is being done by placing contracts with private (‘second sector’) and voluntary (‘third sector’) organisations. The great majority of public service provision has been in the hands of secular bodies (public or through contractors), and there is no evidence that the public is dissatisfied with this. On the other hand, the main example of non-secular public service provision is state-funded religious schools, which notably finds as many as four out of five people hostile. However, as part of its marketisation of public services other than education, such as the welfare and employment, health, social care and housing services, the Government has been promoting the specific inclusion of religious organisations as providers of public services.

Religious organisations have important exemptions from the Equality Act 2010 which allow them to discriminate in various ways, even when working under contract to provide a public service.  For example, the exemptions from employment equality legislation allow religious employers to discriminate against potential applicants for jobs on grounds of religion or belief and of sexual orientation, and to discriminate against current employees on those same grounds in ways such as barring her/him from opportunities for promotion or by dismissing them.  (See our Equalities pages.)

In addition, citizens who are clients of private or charitable contractors do not have the protection of the Human Rights Act. This is in spite of the fact that it is pure chance that they receive their service from such a contractor and not directly from the public authority that is subject to the Act, and we have good reason to believe that it is religious organisations who may be particularly resistant to having public authority status extended to them, since they wish to maintain their religious ethos and hence feel compelled to discriminate in the provision of services.

We believe that such a policy gives rise to significant issues of principle and to substantial practical problems. Not only does having religious organisations providing public services on behalf of the State put at severe risk the secular nature of those services, the problems related specifically to contracting to such organisations include:

• Discrimination against employees of no, or another, religion – including public sector workers who have been transferred to a religious employer;
• Unfair promotion prospects for those of the ‘right’ religion;
• Discrimination against service users of no (or another) religion and reduced rights for service users;
• Discrimination against gays whether employees or service users;
• Religious harassment;
• Artificial boosting with public funds of the prestige and strength of religious organisations;
• Uneconomic duplication of services;
• Divisive effects on the community with implications for social cohesion and equality.

We believe that the problems associated with having religious organisations as public service suppliers and providers are so varied and so great, that it is our firm view that no publicly-funded, comprehensive and statutory public service, to which all citizens have an entitlement, should be contracted out to a religious organisation until the law has been changed to protect service users and employees from discrimination. 

If religious organisations are to be included in the supply and delivery of public services, we have identified a number of steps that the Government must take to address the problems that will inevitably arise.

What are we doing?

In November 2007, we published our report on the contracting out of public services to religious organisations, Quality and Equality: Human Rights, Public Services and Religious Organisations, which discusses and sets out in detail our position and our recommendations aimed to mitigate the problems we have identified with that Government policy.  Our proposals aim to ensure that, if religious organisations are to be included in the supply and delivery of public services, they:

• could not discriminate between service users on grounds of 'religion or belief', or on any other grounds;
• must respect the human rights of service users;
• have equality-based employment policies, so that no one is privileged for a position because of her/his religion or belief, her/his sexual orientation, or on any other irrelevant ground.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has also set out its concerns to government and others about the issues specific to the contracting out of public services to religious organisations. Most recently, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has made clear in its own policy that religious organisations must operate to the same high standards as other public service providers, and be non-discriminatory and totally inclusive in terms of their staffing and their delivery – or not be awarded a contract if they do not wish to.

We are campaigning on the basis of the proposals in our report, including by: lobbying the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Government about getting rid of the exemptions currently afforded to religious organisations, particularly in the context of the Equality Act 2010; supporting a claimant in a landmark religious discrimination employment tribunal; working with parliamentarians to amend the Human Rights Act 1998 to ensure that all service users are covered by it, no matter who their provider is; advising on contractual stipulations to ensure that contracted providers cannot discriminate in employment or against service users; and working in collaboration with other organisations to raise awareness of the issues and seek new ways to campaign for inclusive, secular public services. 

What can you do?

Watch out for local (and national!) initiatives under which public services are already delivered by religious organisations or it is proposed that they should be. Find out about them and tell the BHA.

You can email your MP to raise your concerns about the government’s plans to contract out services to religious organisations and asking them to support the BHA campaign. 

Watch for advertisements for posts restricted to believers in a particular religion and tell the BHA of them.

You can support the BHA by becoming a member. That helps in itself, and you can help even more by supporting our campaigns  in the ways suggested above.  But campaigns also cost money – quite a lot of money – and we also need financial support. You can make a donation to the BHA.