Members of the House of Lords are debating a bill on Tuesday 10 November that would end historic restrictions preventing Catholics and Jews from advising the sovereign on Church appointments, according to UK Parliament and the House of Lords Library. The Church Appointments (Repeal of Discriminatory Provision) Bill is at second reading, when peers discuss its main aims and raise concerns or areas where they think amendments are needed. The outcome of the debate was not yet known at the time of writing.
At present, legislation prevents followers of the Roman Catholic or Jewish faith from advising the sovereign on, or making certain appointments to, the Church of England or the Church of Scotland, according to the House of Lords Library briefing published on 29 October. The bill would remove those restrictions. Its one substantive clause would omit sections 17 and 18 of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 and repeal the Jews Relief Act 1858 in full, according to the briefing.
The bill was prompted by the position of the prime minister, Andy Burnham, who has described himself as Catholic and is the first prime minister to do so, according to the House of Lords Library. Under the 1829 Act it is unlawful for a person professing the Roman Catholic religion to advise the monarch on appointments to offices in the Church of England or the Church of Scotland, so Mr Burnham temporarily delegated his responsibilities for advising the King on church appointments to the Lord Chancellor, Alex Norris. The bill would end the need for that workaround, and the temporary delegation would end as soon as it passes, according to the briefing.
The bill was fast-tracked through the House of Commons without amendment and MPs generally supported it, according to the House of Lords Library, with the official opposition also backing it. Some MPs differed on how the advisory role should be used in future, and others urged the government to treat the change as a starting point for wider constitutional reform. The government has said it has no plans to legislate on the wider matters, such as allowing a monarch of any faith or ending the automatic right of Church of England bishops to sit in the Lords, in a written answer given on 3 November, according to Parliament.
Baroness Smith of Basildon, the Leader of the House of Lords, was due to open the debate and respond for the government, according to UK Parliament, with speakers including the Lord Bishop of Manchester. The bill does not change who leads either church or alter their doctrine, and it does not disestablish the Church of England or the Church of Scotland — it simply removes a religious disqualification from certain advisory and appointment functions. If it passes second reading, it will move to committee stage in the Lords.