Twenty-six Anglican bishops are given seats as of right in the House of Lords.
This is unfair, undemocratic and undesirable. It's time to abolish the bishops' bench.
Two archbishops and 24 bishops of the Church of England currently have automatic seats in the House of Lords. They are sometimes known as 'the lords spiritual'.
We campaign for a secular upper house with no specific religious representation, whether of Christian denominations or any other faiths. In a secular state no religion or its leaders should have a privileged role in the legislature.
Only one other sovereign country reserves seats in its legislature for clerics: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Any serious proposals to reform the House of Lords must address the unjustified privilege of the bishops' bench.
62% of Brits think no religious clerics should have an automatic right to seats in the House of Lords.
After over a century of decline in religious attendance in Britain, the claim that bishops — or any other religious representatives — speak for any significant constituency is not warranted. Less than 2% of the British population now attend Anglican services on the average Sunday.
In addition, the presence of religious leaders amounts to double representation of religious interests as many peers already identify themselves as being religiously motivated. Retired religious leaders are often appointed as peers.
Bishops do not have any "special moral insight" unavailable to everybody else. The idea that bishops or any other 'religious leaders' have any monopoly on issues of morality is offensive to many non-religious citizens. Those who profess no religion are no less capable of making moral and ethical judgements.
In an increasingly secular society the role of religious representatives in our legislature has become irrelevant, and has stood in the way of progressive legislation.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Ask your MP to help end the archaic, unfair and undemocratic bishops’ bench in the House of Lords.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join the National Secular Society
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Abolish Bishops’ Bench to reduce the size of the House of Lords
Posted: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 08:10
The National Secular Society has recommended the removal of the Bishops' Bench to a parliamentary inquiry into how to reduce the size of the bloated House of Lords.
In a written submission to the Lord Speaker's committee on the size of the House of Lords, Stephen Evans, the campaigns director of the National Secular Society, said: "There is no reasonable justification for allowing Church of England bishops to act as ex-officio legislators. The Bench of Bishops is an anomaly in a modern, liberal democracy and if a need to reduce the size of the chamber has been identified the Bishops' Bench is an obvious place to start."
To cut the number of peers to a more manageable size the NSS urged the committee to "consider entirely removing the Bishops' Bench and ending the arrangement whereby religious representatives are given seats as of right."
Not only would this make the upper house less crowded, but it would make a "more equitable and democratic chamber", the Society said.
The Society said that it was wrong for any religion to have a privileged position in the upper chamber, and that it was long since time for the anachronism of the Bishops' Bench to be removed.
Currently two archbishops and 24 bishops are given seats in the upper house and are able to vote on legislation.
Their position grants them other privileges, and they are given deferential treatment by other members. Other peers defer to a bishop wishing to intervene, and they are able to speak unconstrained by party quotes – both points the NSS raised with the Lord Speaker's committee.
The current settlement is "both divisive and unrepresentative", and on some issues the bishops do not even represent the views of their own laity, the Society said, citing marriage equality as an example.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has called the current Bench of Bishops the most "orthodox" since WWII.
It was "indefensible" to maintain the status quo, the Society's submission said, and polling from 2012 and 2010 found a majority of the public, including 70% of Christians, believe it is wrong for the bishops to be given seats automatically.
In its submission the Society again stressed its opposition to replacing or supplementing bishops with leaders from other faiths.
"Any proposals to extend religious representation in the Lords to other religions, such as made by the Woolf Commission in 2016, must be resisted. Such a move would be both unworkable and unpopular and run the risk of creating sectarian tensions.
"It would further erode the franchise of the increasing numbers of non-religious people, and indeed of the many liberal religious people," the Society argued.
The Electoral Reform Society has also criticised the current role of the Church of England in the House of Lords. They said that "The place of the Lords Spiritual is anachronistic.
"Iran is the only other legislature in the world which gives unelected clerics automatic representation in its legislature."
The ERS also rejected suggestions of adding more religious representatives from different faiths to represent minorities: "The automatic inclusion of representatives of other faiths is an unacceptable solution due to the difficulty of deciding which faiths and denominations within faiths to include, how to include non-religious organisations, and the constantly changing demographics of the UK."
The Lord Speaker's committee is charged with exploring "methods by which the size of the House of Lords can be reduced, commensurate with its current role and functions."
The House of Lords currently has over 850 members, making it the second-largest legislative body in the world.
Suffragettes would “turn in their graves” at the suffering of women under sharia, says peer
Posted: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 11:00
Baroness Cox has launched a fresh attempt to tackle sharia councils operating in the UK and protect women's rights.
Speaking at the second reading of her Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill, Baroness Cox said that "We must not condone situations where rulings are applied which are fundamentally incompatible with the laws, values, principles and policies of our country."
Baroness Cox said that "Muslim women are today suffering in ways in which would make suffragettes turn in their graves" and that the proposals in her legislation, supported by the National Secular Society, were a "lifeline". She thanked the NSS for its support and said the problems were "escalating".
She said the legislation "seeks to address two interrelated issues: the suffering of women oppressed by religiously sanctioned gender discrimination, and a rapidly developing alternative quasi-legal system which undermines the fundamental principle of one law for all."
It was clear that some sharia tribunals operating in the UK were "practising gender discrimination" and she cited several examples of Muslim women who faced immense social pressure to use discriminatory sharia 'courts' and faced immense hardship because they did not have the legal protections of a real marriage recognised by the state.
There were 100,000 "couples in Britain today who are living in Islamic marriages not recognised by English law", Cox said, with women being "duped" into believing these ceremonies were legally valid, only "to find upon divorce they have few to no rights in terms of finance or property."
The position of many Muslim women in "closed communities" led to "enormous pressure" not to seek outside help, Baroness Cox explained, because that is seen as bringing "shame" on the family.
She criticised police and authorities for their reluctance to "take action that might be deemed to give offence" to "leaders of these communities".
Peers from all sides of the House offered their support for the legislation.
Lord Anderson, a Labour peer, warned of the danger of a "parallel jurisdiction developing in this country".
Baroness Falkner, a Liberal Democrat, said the legislation was not an "anti-Muslim bill" but that it might restrict the power of Muslim men over women.
However, Lord Keen, speaking for the Government, said that he "cannot give guarantees of government legislation" on protecting women from discriminatory sharia arbitration and said it was "beyond my pay grade." He said that the Government was still considering the recent Casey report into segregation and the findings of the Home Office's review into sharia law, launched when Theresa May was still Home Secretary.
Baroness Cox said that the Government was "living on a different planet" and that without Government support there will be a delay "during which countless women will continue to suffer".
The bill will now proceed to be committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
