Source: business.timesonline.co.uk
Published: November 6, 2009
Frances Gibbs, Legal Editor
Would-be judges will no longer have to declare if they are Freemasons, the Government said yesterday.
The policy reversal was announced by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, after a threat of legal action forced a review. He said that it would be “disproportionate” to continue with the practice.
The United Grand Lodge of England threatened legal action in May, prompted by a European Court of Human Rights decision. The judges ruled in an Italian case in 2007 that the requirement to disclose membership was a breach of the rights to privacy and freedom of association.
Mr Straw said in a Commons written statement that his department’s review had indicated no evidence of “impropriety or malpractice” as a result of any judge being a Freemason.
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