"The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) and other groups representing the secretive organisation in England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands have pushed back against plans, announced earlier this month, to make Freemasonry membership a declarable association. It will mean officers and staff are required to declare membership past or present of any organisation that is hierarchical, has confidential membership and requires members to support and protect each other."
"There is a contradiction between the Met acceptance of our request for fuller consultation, which we welcome, but then refusing to suspend the decision pending the outcome of that consultation. To date the consultation process has been wholly inadequate, prejudicial and unjust and this injunction is the first step we must resort to, to protect our members whose integrity is impugned by the Met decision."
"He previously said there are only 440 Freemasons among the 32,135 officers in the Met, and claimed it is inconceivable that this small number could have an impact on the force. UGLE claim they were not properly included in the consultation process, that less than 5 per cent of officers and staff completed the survey on the issue, and accused the force of refusing to consider any alternative solutions."
Freemasons have launched legal proceedings seeking an injunction to suspend a Metropolitan Police policy that would require officers and staff to declare past or present membership of hierarchical, confidential organisations. The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) and affiliated groups argue the policy could breach human rights law and GDPR and say the consultation process was inadequate. The Metropolitan Police agreed to a consultation but declined to pause implementation, prompting UGLE to apply for judicial review and request suspension of the policy while the review proceeds.
Read at www.independent.co.uk
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]