Leaving the ECHR?

On Wednesday, a debate took place in Westminster Hall on the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights. Stephen Doughty, Minister of State at FCDO, concluded the debate as follows:

“… the ECHR plays a crucial role in our constitutional framework. It is an important pillar of the devolution settlements, it underpins the guarantees in the Good Friday Agreement, and it supports the safety and security of British citizens by facilitating cross-border law enforcement and judicial co-operation. The ECHR is often presented as some sort of foreign imposition that does nothing to help British people. That literally could not be further from the truth. It has contributed significantly to the protection and enforcement of human rights and equality standards in the UK…

The strength of the convention is that, while the ECHR explicitly safeguards those at risk of harm, exclusion or discrimination, helps ordinary people to challenge unfair laws, and pushes Governments to respect rights, it is also entirely reasonable and appropriate for Governments consistently to consider whether the law, including the ECHR, is evolving to meet modern-day challenges, including on irregular migration, asylum and criminal justice. The ECHR was never designed to be set in stone and frozen forever in the time that it was created. That is why we are working with and engaging with European partners to look at ways in which reform can go forward, and why we are reviewing the way in which the ECHR is interpreted in UK domestic law.”

Teaching law to primary kids?

The Final Report of England’s Curriculum and Assessment Review has now been published. It includes two recommendations that touch on “law & religion” that, it recommends, should be “prioritised in the statutory primary curriculum”:

• “Democracy and government: the curriculum should support democratic understanding and engagement, and develop awareness of and readiness for the planned lowering of the voting age to 16. Content should align with the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs, all of which schools are already required to promote actively.”
• “Law and rights: a new Programme of Study should ensure that pupils develop an understanding of rules and laws, why they are important, who makes them and the consequences of not following them. Content should also introduce them to concepts such as fairness and equity [presumably in the non-technical sense], including rights and responsibilities.”

It also has some critical comments on the teaching of religious education and suggests a move towards including RE in the National Curriculum: “the evidence suggests that provision for RE in many schools is not good enough and does not prepare pupils adequately for life beyond school.” The Church of England’s Chief Education Officer comments here.

Russell Sandberg (who knows massively more about this subject than we do) has posted a long analysis here.

DBS in England and Wales

In England, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has launched a national campaign on the legal duty to refer; the process that organisations must follow by law when there are safeguarding concerns about individuals in regulated activity. The DBS has launched targeted outreach in the South East, with a particular focus on engaging faith-based organisations.

Meanwhile, in Wales, following a data breach at APCS that affected personal data submitted for DBS checks between December 2024 and May 2025, the Church in Wales has temporarily paused all DBS checks in to transition to a new and enhanced processing system operated by Verifile, a provider with advanced cybersecurity credentials. The Provincial Safeguarding Team is working with Verifile to ensure a smooth onboarding process and to address any queries as they arise. Individuals affected by the APCS data breach will be notified of the migration to Verifile.

During this transition, all DBS checks are temporarily paused until the migration is complete and the new Verifile platform is fully tested. As part of this pause, the “Initiate DBS Check” function in MyChurchPeople (MCP) has been temporarily disabled. This pause was anticipated to last a maximum of two weeks. New DBS applications were discouraged until further notice.

Quick links

• Matthew Bolton, Industrial Law Journal: Anti-Zionism as ‘Protected Belief’: The Case of David Miller – forthcoming: we reported on Dr Miller’s dispute with the University of Bristol here.
• David Chazan, The Times: French MPs in uproar as schoolgirls wear hijabs to parliament; it was argued that wearing them in the public gallery of the National Assembly breached France’s secularism laws.
• Matthias Mahlmann, Verfassungsblog: Winning by Losing: The Egenberger Decision and the Reconfiguration of Religious Freedom in Germany: on the final judgment by the Federal Labour Court in the employment case involving the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland: we noted the advisory opinion of the CJEU here.
• Michael Quinlan, Religious Freedom in Contemporary Australia.
• Ľalík Tomáš, Strasbourg Observers: Figeľ v. Slovakia: Freedom of religion in defense against the formalistic doctrine of victim status: argues that the ECtHR was wrong to reject the complaint on procedural grounds.
• David Torrance, House of Commons Library: The removal of titles and honours: updated, 3 November 2025.
• Jakob Gašperin Wischhoff: We Must Never Cease to Hope in the Possibility of a Future: an interview with Michael O’Flaherty, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe.
• Peter Collier, ViaMedia.News: Where Does the House of Bishops Currently Stand on the Use of Prayers of Love and Faith? Some Reflections.

And finally…

In a written question, Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds, Con) asked the Cabinet Office “when the Cabinet Office Lieutenancy Policy team was established; how many staff it employs; and what the remit of that team is”.

To which the Paymaster General, Nick Thomas-Symonds, replied on 4 November:

“Responsibility for Lord-Lieutenant policy and appointments was incorporated in the Church Appointments Team in 2018. The equivalent of one full-time member of staff is employed on this work. The team is responsible for managing the appointments of Lord-Lieutenants and Vice Lord-Lieutenants for the United Kingdom, and Deputy Lieutenants in England and Wales. It also oversees expenses for Lieutenancies in England, handles complaints from the public, and addresses relevant policy issues.”

The Church Appointments Team????