- Conference
- 2023 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 9 June 2023
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference – with the publication of the Casey review, and with the first national Police National Database (PND) vetting of all staff and officers recently completed, the omission of the requirement to declare masonic membership still manages to duck the bullet.
All staff and officers have to regularly complete vetting forms and declare membership or involvement in everything in our private lives yet being a member of, in the main, a male-only organisation that binds its members to protect each other, continues to not appear in any stats.
According to the Freemasons UK web site, with 175,000 members there are 7,000 lodges and 87 university lodges in England and Wales welcoming membership from any man over 18 irrespective of race or religion; there are two female-only lodges with approximately 4,000 members.
Our members must declare a business interest for many innocuous out of work involvements such as school governor or local politics, yet membership of the Freemasons is not required.
With national public concern mounting around misbehaviour within police and failings to properly investigate officers and staff, the omission of the requirement to declare membership of Freemasons UK continues to ask the question why.
Conference – this is a simple motion; to ask the SGE to:
1)Raise concerns with the Home Office around membership of Freemasons UK and to include this in all police and justice vetting procedures;
2)Seek to influence the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to include Freemason membership as requiring a business interest.