The new laws to combat discrimination on the grounds of religion, which are to be introduced shortly, have been welcomed by all minority communities. It is hoped that the proposed measures will put an end to religious discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities, services and premises. They will also close a loophole.
Currently while people are protected against discrimination on the basis of colour, race, nationality or national or ethnic origin, they are not protected against discrimination on the basis of religion. The measures will thus address an imbalance which has emerged from case law where Jews and Sikhs are afforded protection while members of other religions are not.
The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, said: "Faith plays a vital role in people’s lives – even for those who are not overtly religious. It is a strength of our society that peoples of many faiths respect each other and are able to flourish and play a valuable role in our communities. We need to protect that strength against discrimination and intolerance."
"We have already taken action to implement EU regulations against religious discrimination in employment and training, which came into force last year. We have introduced tougher penalties for racial and religious hate crime and the Crown Prosecution Service has reaffirmed its policy of prosecuting these crimes vigorously. And I have announced that we intend to look again at legislating against incitement to religious hatred when an opportunity arises."
"But we believe there is also a need to ensure that people are not disadvantaged because of their religion. While some religious groups may be afforded a higher degree of protection from discrimination because they can also be defined by ethnic origin, this is not true for others. These measures will ensure fair and equal protection for all faiths,” Blunkett added.
The new provisions would ban:
· Direct discrimination where a person, on grounds of religion or belief, is treated less favourably than another
· Indirect discrimination where a provision, criterion or practice has the effect of putting people of a particular religious belief at a disadvantage which cannot be justified
· Victimisation where someone is treated less favourably than others because, for example, they have complained of discrimination or have assisted someone else in a complaint
Certain Exemptions include:
· Faith-based schools to allow them to continue to discriminate in favour of that faith in selection policy
· Charities (this would for example allow faith-based charities to discriminate in favour of that faith in the provision of services on the grounds of religion or belief)
· Acts safeguarding national security
The new measures would ensure that providers of goods, facilities, services or premises would not be able to refuse to provide their goods, facilities, services etc. to someone because of their religion or belief. For example, a shopkeeper would be unable to refuse to serve someone on the grounds of his or her religion or belief. However, providers would not normally be regarded as being discriminatory if they refused requests to provide a wider range of goods or services in order to meet a customer’s religious needs.