Religious groups should be consulted as a matter of course over a wide range of government policies and local authority initiatives, with civil servants receiving faith awareness training to inform their work, the Home Office said yesterday.
The official document, Working Together: Cooperation between Government and Faith Communities, says officials should consult all relevant groups, including minorities such as Zoroastrians and Pagans, as well as representatives of mainstream religions and secularists, in drawing up policy.
The move was pioneered by the prime minister and formed a commitment in the last Labour manifesto. It represents a substantial about-turn from previous long-standing suspicion or indifference at national and local levels about the motives and capabilities of religious groups.
Welcoming the report, the prime minister said: "A large majority of people in this country have some religious faith and we wanted to make sure that the needs and perspectives of the faith communities are taken into account as we develop our policies. Moreover (they) have a wealth of experience and a proud record of work in their local communities and more widely and it makes good sense for the government to cooperate with them... in matters of common concern.
"Thriving faith communities are a vital component of our open and diverse society. Government can only benefit from engaging effectively with them."
Fiona Mactaggart, the Home Office junior minister responsible for race equality, community policy and civil renewal, in charge of the report, said: "Conversations with faith groups will now become a much more normal part of doing business in Britain, just as normal as consultation with business or trade unions. They will see that they have influence, otherwise why should they bother to put energy into doing it?"
The initiative was welcomed by faith groups but was greeted with scepticism by the National Secular Society, even though it will be included in future consultations. Its chairman, Terry Sanderson, said: "Obviously we disapprove that the government should be giving special regard to the opinions of religious groups."
The 110 page document says that government departments should always consider consulting a wide range of religious groups in drawing up policy and should consider allocating resources to allow them to participate fully. It may be appropriate to delay plans to allow more time for consultation so that they can respond.
The report calls for "faith literacy" among civil servants so that particular groups are not overlooked.
It is not clear how wide such influence may spread, particularly if it cuts across established secular policies, such as abortion rights.
Gordon Brown for one may not relish the recent initiative by the Catholic bishops who called for higher taxation as a public good.
Ministers are aware that it may be difficult to achieve representative consultation over issues where groups are themselves split, such as equality policy, homosexual employment rights and civil marriages.
The report says that the Church of England - the state established church - should not receive privileged status in consultations and that "as a minimum" it would be appropriate to approach other prominent Christian traditions such as the Catholics, the Free churches and black majority churches.
It adds that secularist groups may have legitimate concerns - "adverse criticism is more likely where secular/humanist organisations have not been transparently consulted".
It says there will be occasions when other groups such as Rastafarians or Pagans should be consulted - the latter over sites such as Stonehenge, which are important to them. The report also insists that officials will be expected to take the views of women and other sometimes marginalised members of religious groups into account.