Council / Secular society chief says councillors are ‘absolutely right’ over religious rep concern
THE CHIEF of an organisation campaigning for the separation of church and state has backed Shetland councillors on their stance around the requirement to appoint religious representatives to a committee.
Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said councillor Gary Robinson was “absolutely right to highlight the absurdity” of the law at a meeting this week.
He also referred to the views of Shetland councillors in a new letter to Scottish education secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville calling for a change in legislation.
The Scottish law, from 1973, requires councils to appoint religious representatives to education committees.
On Wednesday Shetland councillors somewhat reluctantly appointed a new religious representative to its education and families committee, with the feeling that the requirement is outdated.
Robinson’s successful motion saw councillors make the appointment while stressing it was only because they had to. He also called for dialogue over ending the practice.
A number of other councillors also spoke up against the requirement, with Lerwick North and Bressay member Stephen Leask also expressing concern that religious representatives can be appointed without any scrutiny over their beliefs in areas such as LGBT rights.
But a report to elected members said that appointing religious representatives “would meet the outcomes of the council’s equality statement in relation to the need to ensure that democratic bodies better reflect the diversity of Shetland’s communities”.
Under Shetland Islands Council constitution these representatives also have voting rights on education matters, but this could be reviewed.
Robinson said he would rather see members of the Scottish Youth Parliament given voting rights.
Writing in a letter to Shetland News after Wednesday’s full council meeting, Evans said the Scottish Government should repeal the law “as soon as possible”.
“Religious representatives should of course be able to feed their views in through the normal democratic process, but their views should not be given any special or institutional weight,” he said.
“Doing so runs counter to democratic principles. The law requiring the appointment of religious reps to education committees gives religion undue influence over the education of Scottish children and undermines efforts to make Scotland more inclusive and equal.”
Evans added that until such time, councillors across Scotland can limit the influence of this “undemocratic law” by agreeing to remove voting rights.
After John Rollo’s appointment on Wednesday there is still one of the three religious vacancies remaining. Rollo said he did not wish to comment on Wednesday’s council discussion.
Shetland Churches Council Trust nominee Rollo joins Church of Scotland representative Ellen Weir on the committee.
The Shetland Inter Faith Group is expected to confirm its nomination for the third role shortly.
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