Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer, introduced the Review of SACRE membership report, which sought the SACRE’s view on whether to make a recommendation to Council for a Humanist representative to be appointed to SACRE as a full voting member of Committee 1 (Christian Denomination and Other Faiths), in light of a recent High Court decision which confirmed the eligibility of Humanists to be members of SACRE.

 The SACRE was invited to decide whether to recommend the appointment of a Humanist representative in Committee 1, and / or to review other representative faiths and beliefs represented in SACRE. Included in the report was information from the 2021 census as to the relative number of faith and other groupings in the Borough, including Humanists.

The SACRE professional adviser (Adviser) suggested that Committee 1 should be extended to include world views, as Humanist representation could be included under this category. He urged for a caution when reviewing the census, as it was imprecise.

After considering the report, Panel members broke into their respective groups to make a group decision as to whether to support the proposition that a Humanist representative be invited to join Committee 1 as a full voting member.

The votes cast were as follows:

Committee 1 – No

Committee 2 – No

Committee 3 – Yes

Committee 4 – Yes

In accordance with the outcome of the vote, the proposition was not carried.

Resolved -That the Council not be recommended to invite a Humanist representative to join Committee 1 as a full voting member.