Does the Government do God?

This is the Executive summary of the Bloom report which was published in April 2023 by the ‘Independent Faith Engagement Adviser’. It is a very significant report, not least because it was commissioned by the government. It makes many recommendations and the full report can be read Here

Introduction

Whether people like it or not, faith plays a profound role in the life of the United Kingdom (UK). Life in our country would be markedly different without the historical legacy and the overwhelming contribution made by faith, people of faith and places of worship. For many people, religion, faith and belief inform what they do and how they interact with their communities, inspiring them to engage in both the civil and civic activities which build social capital and strengthen the ties that bind our country together.

The UK is a successful multi-faith country, and it has some of the strongest protections in the world to allow people to freely practise their religion, faith or belief. However, as the UK continues to become more diverse, so too does the landscape of faith and belief. Therefore, it is important that our collective understanding of the role of faith in society stays both current and alive to its evolutionary changes, to ensure the UK remains a place that respects, embraces and understands people of all faiths, beliefs and none.

This is particularly important in the context of the government’s ambition to ‘level up’ our communities. For many people in the UK, their place of worship is their ‘marketplace’ – the place they go to for pastoral support, for spiritual nourishment and for practical guidance. If we are to truly improve equality of opportunity across our communities, we must find the spaces where those messages will be heard. For many, this is through their faith leaders and their places of worship.

Ensuring our understanding of the role of faith in society remains current and improving the government’s overall faith literacy are crucial steps to successfully delivering the levelling up agenda. “Imagine if churches and other places of worship removed their time, money, creativity and energy from public life. What would happen to food banks, and youth clubs and [parent] and toddler groups? What would happen to the army of volunteer chaplains in prisons, universities and hospitals? What would happen to the systems and networks of Parish Priests faithfully doing their visits to the vulnerable and housebound? How much would it cost government to replace everything that people of faith do for free?”

Are we properly engaging with people of faith?

This is the brave question government has asked this review to investigate. The first of its kind, it draws on over 21,000 responses to the call for evidence, along with hundreds of hours of follow-up discussions with people of faith, faith-based organisations and Civil Service officials. Given the breadth and complexity of the subject matter, the review could never claim to be comprehensive – but it is an honest appraisal of some of the fundamental areas where faith and government meet. This review recognises and affirms the incredible contribution that faith, people of faith and places of worship make to society. It identified strong examples of working relationships between some parts of government and faith communities. Yet there is clearly an overall need for more consistency in the quality and readiness of government engagement.

The review’s recommendations hope to galvanise government to better support and work with the overwhelmingly positive aspects of faith, while not shying away from tackling harmful practices such as forced and coercive marriage, faith-based extremism, financial exploitation, and potentially unsafe educational environments. All these things are incompatible with and unworthy of the great liberal democracy we want to be.

Chapter 1: Religion, belief and faith in the UK and Chapter 2: Faith literacy in government

In the 2021 Census for England and Wales, over half of respondents declared a religion, representing a significant proportion of the population of England and Wales. In the past 50 years, religious demographics have changed considerably, partly as a result of inward migration of people of minority faiths. Faiths provide structure, codes of conduct and context for building cohesive communities. Regardless of which faith people identify with, studies suggest that faith can have incredibly positive impacts on personal wellbeing, success and feelings of belonging.7 Faith often informs people’s priorities and helps cultivate pro-social sentiments such as kindness, generosity and compassion.

Faithbased organisations contribute immensely to the effectiveness and success of government when it attempts to tackle some of the most pressing social challenges, whether poverty, loneliness, mental health or support through the COVID-19 pandemic. Faith-based organisations make up around 27% of charities in England and Wales, and the sector is growing.

In short, faith is a force for good which government cannot afford to ignore. However, this review’s call for evidence found that 53% of respondents believe freedom of religion or belief is under threat in the UK. This view is particularly strong among Christians (68%). The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief has formed a major part of government’s commitment to address the persecution of Christians and minority religious groups around the world.

The review recommends expanding the role of the Special Envoy to include domestic affairs. Chapters 1 and 2 outline examples of excellent partnership working between government and faith organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on this, government should support greater and better collaboration, as set out in the 2020 Kruger review ‘Levelling up our communities’. By 2023, every local council should be signed up to a Faith Partnership Charter with local places of worship.

Good collaboration is rooted in good communication. This review found that the terms ‘faith’, ‘belief’, ‘religion’, and other basic tenets and principles of the range of faiths and beliefs in the UK are often poorly understood in government and public services, including the Civil Service, the police, the National Health Service (NHS) and in education. This review recommends the adoption of a consistent set of definitions, alongside generalised faith literacy training for all on the public payroll. This would improve both internal and external communication, policymaking rooted in respect for all protected characteristics and human rights, and service delivery free of conscious or unconscious prejudice. The important work of improving meaningful engagement should be supported by a new Independent Faith Champion.

Chapter 3: Faith in education

Schools play an important role in shaping every generation, and particularly in promoting an understanding and appreciation of faith which stretches across generations into many sectors of society. Through promoting constructive dialogue and positive interaction between people with different beliefs, faith literacy in educational contexts is an essential part of equipping young people to thrive in British society.

Despite religious diversity in England increasing over recent decades, the place of faith in the education system faces some significant challenges, including the provision of quality religious education (RE) and the level of understanding and sensitivity towards students’ faith-specific needs.

Beyond full-time education, faith and religious instruction is often taught through faith specific settings such as yeshivas, madrassahs or Sunday schools. Currently, these ‘out-of-school settings’ are not required to be registered, which increases the risk of poor safeguarding and health and safety breaches. This reviewer believes that a ‘one size fits all’ approach would be problematic, but where an out-of-school setting operates just below the legal threshold of an independent school, it should be appropriately registered and regulated.

It is a cause of deep regret that very often government primarily looks at these establishments through the lens of counter-terrorism without also looking at them from a safeguarding perspective. For the mental and physical safety of our children, it is important that government formalises its approach to these institutions. At higher education level, introducing faith-sensitive student finance options would improve fair access across faith groups. Government should follow through on Sharia-compliant student finance.

Chapter 4: Faith in prison and on probation

Approximately 68% of prisoners claim to have a religion, which is considerably larger than the general population. Reflecting wider society, the prison population is increasingly faith-diverse. Generally, someone who finds themselves in the prison system can expect their faith to be recognised and respected. Where faith is clearly important to prisoners, prison chaplaincy plays a key role in fostering healthy religious practice and values, but the service is too often inconsistent.

There are many faith-based organisations who are well equipped to support prisoners and probationers. This review argues for enhanced due diligence of chaplains and volunteers, and consistent partnership with faith-based civil society for the welfare of prisoners and success of rehabilitation, particularly where extremist ideologies are at play.

In what is by definition a captive audience, extremist ideologies can spread, be reinforced, and in some cases be coercively imposed, illegally curtailing prisoners’ rights to freedom of belief, undermining the rehabilitation journey and increasing security risks. Government should carry out an urgent review of coercive conversions and radicalisation.

Moreover, the prison and probation system should prioritise equipping staff with religious understanding and tools that will help them identify radicalised religious ideologies and support prisoners in their rehabilitation. Government should further embrace the use of faith-based deradicalisation and rehabilitation programmes, and expand existing ones focusing on what works, both before and after prison.

Chapter 5: Faith in the UK Armed Forces

The UK Armed Forces is not only one of the biggest employers in the UK, but it is also a symbol that proclaims and protects British values at home and abroad. Through its recruitment strategies, it has the potential to play an important role in advancing community integration and cohesion across diverse communities. To illustrate the scale of the challenge, Muslims account for just 0.4% of UK Regular Forces, though they make up 6.5% of the UK population (according to the 2021 Census).

This review found evidence that UK Armed Forces members from minority religious groups have an enormous sense of belonging, together with pride in their families and faith communities. Addressing the barriers which prevent British citizens of minority faiths from joining freely should be tackled urgently to build the diverse and dynamic fighting force that truly mirrors the society it protects. The UK Armed Forces should continually review their recruitment and retention policies until this is achieved.

Chapter 6: Faith-based extremism

This review recognises that the freedom to campaign for particular beliefs is a fundamental human right and an essential part of a liberal democracy. However, it is unacceptable and undemocratic for activists to coerce, threaten or intimidate people who disagree with their beliefs or tactics. Identifying when an ideology breaches democratic bounds is a complex issue. While the majority of people of faith are, as defined earlier, ‘true believers’ – decent, honourable and generous people – government must address the small but dangerous minority of ‘make-believers’ who intentionally harm, or intend to harm, the individual and collective freedoms this country holds dear.

The four fundamental British values as taught in our schools are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs.These values are what makes this country such an attractive place to live. Government should be bold and courageous in not just upholding these values, but rigorously protecting them too.

For a generation, policy makers and the media have almost singularly focused on the threat of Islamist extremism, and proportionally it remains the largest threat. Of course, the overwhelming majority of British Muslims do not condone the values and behaviour of Islamist extremists. Government should redouble its efforts to ensure mainstream and peaceful Muslims do not feel unfairly associated with Islamist extremists. The important distinction between Islam and Islamism must form part of the faith literacy training for all staff on the public payroll as recommended in chapter 2.

Recent years have seen a welcome crackdown on white supremacists and neo-Nazis, and a robust response to an ugly rise of antisemitism. However, in the opinion of this reviewer, this laser focus has allowed other types of faith-based or ‘faith-adjacent’ extremisms, such as Sikh extremism, Hindu nationalism and black nationalism, to grow under the noses of the authorities.

This chapter describes some of the subversive or sectarian behaviours and activities of the various faith-based or ‘faith-adjacent’ extremisms operating in the UK today, including online tactics. It recommends renewed efforts to investigate these behaviours and activities, as well as greater government vigilance and the need for decisive and courageous action where these groups are politically subversive or where they use tactics to silence or threaten their opponents.

Chapter 7: Faith-based exploitation

Faith-based charities and places of worship need to raise money to cover their expenses. However, there is a clear difference between legitimate and voluntary fundraising, and when deception, coercion and exploitation of trust are used to extract money from people, particularly when the victims can’t afford it.

Though rare, such practices are well known and have devastating impacts on victims and their broader communities. In extreme cases, such as high-control groups (‘cults’), it is not only money but a person’s freedom over their life that can be compromised. All who may be involved with ensuring the legal compliance of places of worship and the safety of people of faith (such as the police, the Charity Commission, policy makers and MPs) need a sufficient level of faith literacy including intrafaith issues, to spot the signs of wrong-doing and handle these difficult situations sensitively.

Chapter 8: Religious marriage

Marriage is widely recognised as a key life event and plays an essential part in both family life and public ceremonial practice. Not all wedding ceremonies result in a legal marriage, which can be problematic if the spouses are unaware of their lack of rights in cases of divorce or death of a partner. If anyone is coerced, deceived or manipulated into marriage or marriage conditions they do not consent to, it is both a denial of their freedom and a violation of their human rights.

It is unacceptable that this continues to happen, to the suspected tune of 5,000 to 8,000 incidences a year in England. Since religious background is sadly often a key feature, government should systematise the comprehensive collection of data across local and national government and prioritise better faith literacy among officials and front-line services so that prevention and victim support efforts become more effective. Moreover, officiants responsible for conducting marriages, legally-binding or not, must be held accountable for ensuring that prospective spouses have given informed consent to their chosen form of marriage.

Despite many waves of societal, political and journalistic interest, there has been insufficient action to date on forced marriage. This reviewer believes that such crimes would be more effectively tackled if a single government department took sole responsibility of an adequately resourced Forced Marriage Unit. This would ensure that the policy and operational arms can quickly adapt to perpetrators’ evolving tactics and provide a stronger political voice for addressing this issue.

Conclusion

This far-ranging report reviews key areas of government’s engagement with faith communities. There are numerous areas where engagement helps bring about common goals of a free, respectful and caring society, and a few where insufficient or inadequate engagement undermines these aims. On the strength of this report, the reviewer hopes government and others will continue to celebrate the benefits of faith in all its diversity for this country and its people. He hopes government finds the recommendations helpful so it can maximise the overwhelming good, but also tackle the small but serious areas where harm is caused.

Notes

Scope It is important to note that this review was commissioned by the UK government. It therefore makes recommendations regarding the UK government’s engagement with faith, people of faith and places of worship in England and, where it is exercising reserved functions, across other parts of the UK. Matters related to faith policy are largely devolved, but the evidence gathered often covered all four corners of the UK and was not necessarily geographically specific, so, where appropriate, the review comments on faith in the UK more broadly.

It is the expressed hope of the reviewer that a number of the recommendations may prove helpful to policy makers across the whole of the UK.

Methodology

From the outset of this review, a high premium was placed on ensuring that the evidence collected adequately captured the opinions and lived experiences of as many people as possible, including the people and organisations that represent the vast diversity of faiths and beliefs in the UK.

The initial evidence-gathering process involved numerous meetings and interviews, engaging charities, organisations, sectoral experts and key individuals of all faiths, beliefs and none to discuss and share any data on specific areas of interest. This also included assessing research and academic papers, other independent government reviews, All-Party Parliamentary Group reports, and news articles.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a temporary pause, to allow the Independent Faith Engagement Adviser to advise and support the government in its engagement with places of worship and faith-based organisations. This provided unique insight into how government and other public services responded to the pandemic’s incredible challenges and offered another rich pool of evidence. In a third phase, a public call for evidence was launched on 13 November 2020, closing on 11 December 2020.

It received over 21,000 responses to a series of questions around how those of all faiths, beliefs or none perceive government’s engagement with faith. It covered a large proportion of the final topics outlined in this review, although not all, as this final stage of stakeholder engagement was designed to provide further evidence where gaps had been identified. The response to the call for evidence was far higher than anticipated – bringing up over one million pieces of data – emphasising the strength of public feeling associated with matters of faith. Ministers and officials from across government were consulted to inform recommendations.

It is important to note that the overall response and engagement from all government departments has been overwhelmingly positive. Many are seeking joint working initiatives and formulating new policy following the assessments put forward by the review, in some cases before this report was published. It was vital that a review commenting on the need for greater faith literacy engaged with analysts, academics and professionals who were confident in interfaith and intrafaith issues, as well as the common faith-based arguments, religious nuances and prejudices in the responses.

The University of Birmingham, through the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion, has provided thorough analysis of the call for evidence, ensuring that every response was carefully read and every respondent listened to, while also providing clear statistical data. These analysis reports are the intellectual property of the University of Birmingham.

Finally, it is important to acknowledge that despite the wealth and richness of the data gathered throughout this review, the qualitative and anecdotal nature of the evidence often represents opinion rather than fact, given the personal and sensitive nature of many of the conversations. The evidence is therefore not infallible, and the review should be read with this in mind. Given the evidence gathering and stakeholder conversations primarily took place in 2020 and 2021, developments in policies, statistics, domestic or international affairs may not be entirely up to date at the time of publication.