Prospective judges will no longer have to declare if they are Freemasons

The Government has announced that prospective judges will no longer have to declare if they are Freemasons.

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 the European Court of Human Rights decision of Grande Oriente D’ Italia di Palazzo Giustiniani v Italy (No.2) in 2007, where it was decided that the requirement to disclose membership of a non-secret association 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. There were “existing safeguards that help the proper performance of judicial functions”, including the judicial oath and an official complaints procedure.

In his statement, Mr Straw said that since 1998 all first-time, successful candidates for judicial appointment or the magistracy had been required to declare whether they were Freemasons.

The aim of the ruling was to “promote public confidence in the judicial system” after a report on the issue by the Home Affairs Select Committee. This had found no evidence of impropriety on the part of judges who were members. “Its recommendations were therefore of a precautionary nature and intended to maintain public confidence in the criminal justice system.”

Senior judges resisted being required to make the declaration. Lord Bingham of Cornhill, then Lord Chief Justice, said at the time that there had never been “a vestige of evidence that any judge in any case ever in this country has been diverted from his duty by any conflict arising from Freemasonic association”.

On 1st April 2009, 205 of the 3,808 judges in England & Wales (5.4 per cent) were Freemasons compared to 1,900 of the 29,702 magistrates in England & Wales (6.4 per cent). There are more than 333,000 Freemasons in England & Wales and an estimated 6 million in the world.