May 11th, 2018
Today, while the Government announced it will not allow the opening of new 100% selective religious free schools, it also announced it will allow the opening of new 100% selective religious voluntary aided schools. This morning it has further announced that the funding for this will come from the pot of funding previously available for […]
May 11th, 2018
The Government, breaking a manifesto commitment, has announced that it will keep the 50% cap on religious selection by new religious free schools in England, in a move welcomed by Humanists UK, which has led the campaign against efforts to lift it. The Government’s announcement comes after 20 months of steady campaigning from Humanists UK […]
May 10th, 2018
Humanists UK is pleased to announce the appointments of three distinguished new patrons from diverse areas of public life. They are Dr Miriam Stoppard, popular writer and physician; Paul Sinha, stand-up comedian and professional quizzer; and science writer and author Piers Bizony. Humanists UK has over 170 patrons who support its work in various ways […]
May 9th, 2018
Ireland’s Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, announced today that the Republic of Ireland is going ahead with its plans to remove religious selection from Catholic primary schools. Three amendments to the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2016 that will bring about this change have now been brought forward by the Government and will most likely […]
May 9th, 2018
Weddings conducted by Humanists UK celebrants grew by 240% between 2004 and 2015, it has been revealed, meaning that Humanists UK is now the fifth biggest organisation providing religious or belief-based wedding ceremonies and the largest non-civil/non-Christian provider. For the first time, official statistics have revealed how many marriages are performed by each different religious denomination in […]
May 8th, 2018
Humanists must be given the same right as religious representatives to sit on the local bodies responsible for overseeing religious education in schools, the Welsh Government has stated. The move follows on from a court challenge taken by Humanists UK last year against one local authority’s exclusive approach, and reverses over 20 years of government […]
May 3rd, 2018
The Universities Minister Sam Gyimah has stated that the Department for Education should create a new set of guidelines on the promotion and protection of free speech on university campuses. Humanists UK, who has been calling for the government to issue such guidance for many years, including, uniquely, in oral and written submissions to the […]
May 2nd, 2018
Unique research being highlighted today has revealed that there is significant support for assisted dying amongst people with motor neurone disease (MND), with a plurality wishing to consider it for themselves, were it made legal with strong safeguards. The research, found in two reports first published in 2012 and 2013 but only now having its findings in relation to […]
May 1st, 2018
During an evidence session held by the House of Commons Education Committee, Education Minister Nick Gibb has promised to prosecute illegal schools. Stating that the Department for Education (DfE) takes illegal schools ‘very seriously’, Gibb said that the Government is ‘devoting quite a bit of resource to prosecuting and closing down unregistered school settings’, many […]
April 27th, 2018
Humanists UK, alongside 20 other royal colleges and campaigning groups, has written a letter to The Times calling upon the Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt to allow women in England to take abortion pills at home rather than being required to make multiple trips to a hospital or clinic. The letter has been […]
April 26th, 2018
Humanists UK has been given leave to intervene in the Court of Appeal hearing of its member Noel Conway, who has been fighting for the right to an assisted death. Noel, who has motor neurone disease, lost his case at the High Court in October, and is now seeking to have that decision overturned. Humanists UK is […]
April 25th, 2018
The Northern Ireland Departments of Health and Justice have published a report of their ‘inter-Departmental working group on termination of pregnancies in fatal fetal abnormality cases’, recommending a change to the law prohibiting abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormality (FFA), where the foetus is unlikely to reach full gestation, or die during or shortly […]
