Freemasons have failed in their attempt to bring a legal challenge against Britain\u2019s biggest police force over its decision to compel staff to declare whether they are or have been members.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Chamberlain said on Tuesday that the Metropolitan police\u2019s decision \u201cserves a legitimate aim, maintaining and enhancing public trust in policing, and is proportionate\u201d.<\/p>\n
Three bodies representing Freemasons in England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as two serving police officers who are Freemasons, had sought to take legal action<\/a> against the force at the high court.<\/p>\n It came after the Met announced in December that membership of the Freemasons or similar organisations would be added to its declarable associations policy.<\/p>\n This means officers and staff are required to declare membership \u201cpast or present\u201d of any organisation that is \u201chierarchical, has confidential membership and requires members to support and protect each other\u201d.<\/p>\n About 400 Met officers and staff have already made declarations<\/a> under the policy.<\/p>\n In a 17-page ruling on Tuesday, Chamberlain said the grounds of the proposed legal challenge were not \u201creasonably arguable\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe purpose of such action, and therefore the purpose of the requirement to disclose the information, is the dual one of eliminating the potential for actual bias, where officers discharge their functions improperly, and perceived bias, where there is a perception or suspicion that officers are discharging their functions improperly.<\/p>\n \u201cIn both cases, the requirement is, in my judgment, designed to secure the proper exercise of the functions of a constable. The contrary is not reasonably arguable.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge added that the policy was not discriminatory or \u201cunduly stigmatising\u201d against Freemasons.<\/p>\n He added that leaving the decision of whether to declare membership of the Freemasons to individual officers and staff on an \u201cad hoc basis\u201d would not \u201cachieve the object of maintaining or enhancing public trust\u201d.<\/p>\n After the decision, Cmdr Simon Messinger said on behalf of the Met: \u201cWe had been prepared to robustly defend our decision through the courts, so today\u2019s judgment is welcome.<\/p>\n \u201cOur declarable associations policy was changed after feedback highlighted concerns that involvement in these types of organisations could compromise impartiality or create conflicts of loyalty.<\/p>\n Freemasons\u2019 Hall, the Grand Lodge headquarters, in Covent Garden, London. Photograph: Vuk Valcic\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n \u201cBoth victims of crime and those reporting wrongdoing must have trust and confidence there is no risk that investigations are tainted by such issues. We have prioritised this over any organisation\u2019s desire to maintain secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking on behalf of the three Freemasonry groups that brought the challenge, Adrian Marsh, grand secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England, said: \u201cWe maintain that we have an obligation to protect our members from discrimination, which, in our view, will do nothing to improve on the Metropolitan police\u2019s delivery on its mandate to keep London<\/a> safe by reducing crime, building public trust and upholding high standards.\u201d<\/p>\n At a hearing on 11 February, lawyers for the two officers, the United Grand Lodge of England, the Order of Women Freemasons and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons asked the judge to allow the challenge.<\/p>\n Claire Darwin KC, for the claimants, said that the Met\u2019s decision allowed it to create a \u201cblacklist\u201d.<\/p>\n In written submissions, the barrister said that the move was an \u201cinstitutional signal of suspicion\u201d that breached Freemasons\u2019 human rights and was based on \u201climited, opaque and heavily perception-driven\u201d evidence.<\/p>\n She continued that the police appeared to rely on \u201clongstanding conspiracy theories and\/or prejudicial tropes about Freemasons\u201d as a reason to introduce the measure.<\/p>\n Barristers for the Met said the claim should be thrown out, telling the court that the suggestion officers would be blacklisted was \u201cplainly wrong and that employees were \u201cfree to become or remain Freemasons\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Freemasons have failed in their attempt to bring a legal challenge against Britain\u2019s biggest police force over its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-430637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}