The Joint Committee on Human Rights has published its Second Report of the Session, on Counter-Extremism. There is much in the Report that is of interest to faith-communities, not least because the Joint Committee is critical of the Government’s proposal that education in “out-of-school settings” when instruction takes place for six hours a week or more should be subject to inspection by Ofsted. As we first noted in January (and we have returned to the issue subsequently) the proposal has raised concerns about possible inspection of such activities as intensive choir-practices and Nativity play rehearsals.
The Joint Committee does not support a regime of routine inspections of out-of-school education. Moreover, it is fairly critical of current policies generally, pointing out that “The Government gave us no impression of having a coherent or sufficiently precise definition of either ‘non-violent extremism’ or ‘British values’.”
Following are the Joint Committee’s recommendations: