In a guest post, Russell Sandberg looks at a series of amendments on religion tabled to the Schools Bill currently before the House of Lords. 

The Schools Bill is currently at Committee Stage in the House of Lords. It had its first sitting on 8 June and will sit again on 13, 15 and 22 June before reaching Report Stage in the Autumn. As I discussed in a previous post, it contains several provisions affecting religion in schools in England, mostly focusing on academy schools with a religious character and unregistered religious schools. As I suggested, legislating for such issues provides an opportunity for wider amendments concerning the law on teaching religion in schools and religious worship. This opportunity has been taken and a number of amendments have been tabled at Committee Stage. This post will explore these amendments and why they deserve to be successful.

The current law on these matters is outdated and unworkable. Continue reading →