Peer: ‘CI civil service case highlights dangers of ‘politicised policing’

Baroness Fox of Buckley has commended The Christian Institute’s legal action against the Civil Service’s taxpayer-funded participation in Pride marches.

During a House of Lords debate on the Crime and Policing Bill, the Director of the Academy of Ideas told her fellow Peers that the case against “civil servants marching in branded Civil Service Pride t-shirts” demonstrates why it is important to consider removing the police from the Equality Act 2010’s public sector equality duty.

The Institute’s legal action followed a successful challenge against Northumbria Police’s participation in Pride events, where the court ruled that Pride was “political” and a breach of laws on police impartiality. The Institute argues that the Civil Service’s official endorsement and funding of similar marches also contravenes Civil Service impartiality.

‘Distracting’

Lady Fox stated: “I wish that more public bodies would commit themselves to effectively carrying out their functions and not get distracted by the public sector equality duty. The police, I am afraid, have become far too embroiled in politicised equality initiatives”.

“For the public, the idea of a politicised police force fuels the argument that the police may be unfair or discriminatory in who they target for, for example, non-crime hate incidents. Though we have seen the back of those, they were the blight of many a person’s life and destroyed many citizens’ lives.

“We need reassurance that the public sector equality duty has not been used to distract the police or to politicise policing. All the evidence would imply that it has been, and that is something that the Government should be concerned about.”

Rainbow lanyards

Last year, the Institute formally commenced its legal action against the Prime Minister and the Civil Service.

The challenge is being brought because the Institute believes official participation in Pride gives the public the impression that civil servants have taken sides on controversial issues on which they ought, by law, to be impartial.

The Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert said: “I have been working in public policy for decades. I’ve been shocked by how many civil servants wear Pride lanyards in our meetings with them, even when those meetings are specifically about conflicts with that ideology.

“Sitting in front of a phalanx of civil servants in rainbow lanyards gives the impression that their minds are closed on the issues we are discussing. It certainly does not communicate the kind of neutrality that taxpayers expect of civil servants.”