Home Office to pursue register of Freemasons in the judiciary

The Home Office intends to pursue registration of police officers, their civilian staff and other members of the judiciary who are Freemasons by the end of February 2001 with possible public disclosure of names on the register.
    To this end, the Home Office is seeking responses by the end of the year to its formal reply to the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee report on Freemasonry in Public Life.
    The aim is to “confirm the way forward by the end of February 2001” the Home Office says in its reply to the MPs.
    The Home Office adds: “The Government aims to complete the exercise in the criminal justice system before turning to other areas of public life such as local authorities and parliament.”
    A voluntary questionnaire of masonic membership was carried out in 32 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, in which the average response rate was 36.6%. Just 1.1% declared masonic membership, while 89.4% said they were not members and 9.5% declined to make any declaration.
    The Home Office states that the response by the police and police civilian support staff has been less than that for the judiciary and magistracy.
    According to the Home Office, voluntary registers for members of the judiciary to declare masonic membership achieved a 96% response rate. Of these 5% declared they were freemasons, 89.7% were not in the Craft and 1.3% declined to answer. The equivalent percentages for the magistracy were 87.7%, 5%, 80.4% and 2.3%.
    The Home Office commented: “The response rate achieved by the judiciary and magistracy demonstrates that registration can be sufficiently achieved on a voluntary basis and without legislation.
    “However, this has not so far been the case in police forces, and the Home Office will therefore be consulting the police service about how to achieve a satisfactory response rate, whether through changing the way in which voluntary registration is conducted, or through legislating to require registration.”
    The Home Office adds that, in its first report, the Select Committee concluded “there was a widespread public conception that freemasonry can have an unhealthy influence on the criminal justice system. The Government is committed to ensuring public confidence in their police service.
    “It is important that the police service now work with us to develop arrangements which will deliver this confidence. The consultation options will include a requirement for police officers to register whether or not they are freemasons, and cover arrangements for possible public disclosure of registered details.
    “Whatever is arrived at will be firm, effective and fair, securing transparency while respecting individual rights of privacy and free association.”
    UGLE has sent a letter to Chief Constables, pointing out that such a register would be discriminatory and contrary to Articles 8 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
    The letter points out that, acting on legal advice, both Cambridgeshire and Essex County Councils have withdrawn all references to Freemasons from their employees’ code of conduct.
    UGLE points out to Chief Constables that the Select Committee itself dismissed suggestions that there is a conflict between the Constabulary Oath and the obligations taken as a Freemason.
    Moreover, says the letter, the Ministry of Defence has now withdrawn a statement contained in a Defence Council Instruction that Freemasonry “carries with it the risk of establishing disparate loyalties which may have a destabilising influence on the chain of command.”
    In a letter to a Lancashire Grand Officer, the Leader of the Opposition, William Hague, replied that the Select Committee “failed to establish that there was any substance behind allegations of preferment, or that there were any abuses within the criminal justice system involving the police or the judiciary which resulted in miscarriages of justice.”
    Mr Hague added: “Those who are promoting the requirement for a compulsory registration scheme have failed to establish the mischief which such a scheme would seek to address. They have also failed to demonstrate why the declaration of membership of societies should be restricted to freemasonry.”
    The government has signalled its determination to pursue the idea of a voluntary register. Indeed, in its response to the Select Committee, it makes clear it plans to extend registration to Coroners and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. The prison service and individual probation services are in the process of introducing voluntary registers.
    Paul Whitehouse, Chief Constable of Sussex and chairman of the Association of Chief Police Officers’ personnel and management committee, said ACPO welcomed further consultation

The Government reply to the Second Report from the Home Affairs Committee, Session 1998-99, HC 467 (Command 4813), price £1.15p.

Home Affairs Committee conclusions

In its overall conclusions, the Select Committee, in its report of May 1999, says “there is a great deal of unjustified paranoia about freemasonry, but freemasons, with their obsessive secrecy, are partly to blame for this.”
    The committee added: “We are also aware that there is a widespread belief that improper masonic influence does play a part in public life. Most of these allegations are impossible to prove. Where they can be carefully examined, they usually prove unfounded.”
    The Committee said that progress on a register had been slow, particularly in respect of the police, and urged the Home Office to significantly speed up the process, with a clear timetable.
    The MPs also called for disclosure to be extended to other areas of public life such as local authorities and parliament.

Another council rethinks register

Another local authority has scrapped its ruling that staff who are freemasons should register their membership, following a similar decision by Cambridgeshire County Council.
    The Executive Board of Essex County Council has recommended to the full council that they rescind their 1996 ruling on employees registering masonic membership.
    Legal advice was that without a law requiring disclosure, the council’s policy – implying that disciplinary action would be taken against transgressors – would be difficult, if not impossible to enforce.
    Moreover, lawyers warned the council that any attempt to enforce registration could lead to a successful claim of a breach of rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
    It could particularly breach three articles of the Convention dealing with the right to respect for private and family life, freedom of assembly and association, and prohibition of discrimination in relation to access to Convention rights.

Judicial Review warning hits at Ministry of Defence “slur”

Grand Lodge is preparing to take its battle to court with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) over the ministry’s plans for a register of Freemasons.
    UGLE Grand Secretary Jim Daniel has written to Armed Forces Minister Jim Spellar over his decision to reissue a Defence Council Instruction (DCI) on Freemasonry.
    The MOD has already backed down by removing from the DCI the words that Freemasonry “carries with it the risk of establishing disparate loyalties which may have a destabilising influence on the chain of command.”
    Mr Spellar, in a letter to the Grand Secretary, has conceded that these words “may be open to some misinterpretation.” He added: “I have concluded that we should remove this clause and allow our revised guidelines on the issue to more closely follow our public service line.”
    VW Bro Daniel has attacked the decision to reissue the revised DCI which, he pointed out “will clearly still be directed solely against Freemasonry.”
    He accused the MOD of singling out Freemasons as having allowed “their private life activities” to “impinge on their professional duties within the Services.”
    The Grand Secretary added: “What evidence has there ever been that Freemasons have acted in this way? None that has been brought to our attention.”
    He warned: “If the DCI is re-issued and Freemasonry is singled out in it, we will have no alternative but to take legal advice on seeking a judicial review or such other action which will remove this slur on our organisation from your books.”

Grand Charity provides £300,000 for Red Cross work in England and Wales

A £300,000 donation has gone from the Grand Charity, the UGLE charitable arm, to the British Red Cross Fire Victim Service, which operates in conjunction with local fire services.
    Teams of trained British Red Cross volunteers provide practical emotional support to victims of house fires and similar incidents. They use specially adapted vehicles to provide safe, dry and warm shelter.
    The money will be used to provide start-up and first year running costs for a further 11 of these Fire Victim Support Vehicles across England and Wales.
    Each service will be supported by local freemasons in Buckinghamshire, Cumbria, Dorset, Gwent / Glamorgan, Hereford / Worcester, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Teeside, West Midlands and Wiltshire.
    A roll-out programme is planned to start in the final quarter of this year, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2001. The first vehicle will go into service in the West Midlands.