Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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AN foolish and undemocratic law in Scotland requires councils to appoint unelected religious representatives to their education committees.

Appointees are usually the only unelected members who receive voting privileges, and the NSS is currently running a campaign to remove automatic places on education committees for religious representatives.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1973 requires local authorities in Scotland to appoint three religious representatives to their education committees.

At least one must be appointed by the Catholic Church and one by the Protestant Church of Scotland. They are usually the only unelected members who receive voting privileges. A council may exercise some choice over the third appointee, but this process is extremely unclear and inconsistent.

Such representatives, the NSS points out, have voting privileges in most councils, enabling them to influence local education policies affecting both faith and non-faith schools.

The campaign was highlighted by the welcome news that the City of Edinburgh Council has voted to end voting privileges for unelected religious appointees. It’s the fifth in Scotland to do so.

At the end of August councillors voted in favour of removing voting concessions for the religious representatives sitting on the cabinet and education committees.

This, despite deputations from local religious groups appealing to the council to retain these privileges.

According to the Edinburgh Evening News among them was Catholic Archbishop Leo Cushley.

Image via YouTube

Cushley, above, is quoted as telling councillors:

Catholic schools in Scotland are a part of the heritage of the Catholic community here, and they were entrusted in 1918 to the state, presently represented by you. Having entrusted this estate to you, for us not to have an active voice in council in matters touching upon Catholic schools makes no sense to us, unless there is another agenda at hand, such as one that is inimical to faith, be it in schools or elsewhere in the public square.

NSS briefed councillors

The NSS, which briefed councillors before the Edinburgh vote, welcomed the decision. Head of campaigns Megan Manson said:

We congratulate the City of Edinburgh Council for being the fifth Scottish council this year to vote to end the unfair privileges granted to religious representatives on education committees.

That so many councils have made this move in the space of less than a year demonstrates the unsustainability of giving voting powers to unelected individuals based on their religious affiliation.

She added:

It also calls into question the appropriateness of requiring councils to appoint religious representatives in the first place. The Scottish government must urgently review this increasingly outdated and unpopular law.

Green councillor Steve Burgess told the Evening News:

We think that people elected by voters should be the ones to take decisions about schools because they can be held to account for their voting, whereas people who are not elected can’t be.

There are lots of other groups that have an interest in education who aren’t represented. Even the parents’ representatives don’t have the vote.

The NSS campaign says:

The system of religious appointees runs counter to democratic principles. Not only are they unelected by the voters; they are also subject to almost no indirect democratic control. Councils must accept the appointments made by the Church of Scotland and the Catholic Church …

Reserving a special role in policy-making for representatives of specific religious institutions, and in so doing excluding the majority of Scottish citizens based on their protected characteristics of religion or belief, clearly runs counter to principles of equality.

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