LEGAL FRAMEWORK

In the absence of a written constitution, the law establishes the Church of England as England’s state church, with the monarch as its head. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland do not have state religions. The law establishes the Church of Scotland as Scotland’s national church, but it is not dependent on any government body or the monarch for spiritual matters or leadership.

The 1998 Human Rights Act states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.” The Human Rights Act reaffirms the European Convention of Human Rights, which provides for freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, subject to certain restrictions that are “in accordance with law” and “necessary in a democratic society.”

As the supreme governor of the Church of England, the monarch must always be a member of, and promise to uphold, that church. The monarch appoints Church of England officials, including lay and clergy representatives, on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Crown Appointments Commission. Aside from these appointments, the state is not involved in church administration. The Church of Scotland is governed by its General Assembly, which has the authority to make laws determining how it operates.

Blasphemy and blasphemous libel remain criminal offenses in Northern Ireland under common law, but there have been no convictions for blasphemy or blasphemous libel there. These laws prohibit “composing, printing, or publishing any blasphemous libel or any seditious libel tending to bring into hatred … any matter in Church or State.” The law applies only to Christianity.

In England and Wales, the law prohibits religiously motivated hate speech and any acts intended to incite religious hatred through the use of words or the publication or distribution of written material. The law defines religious hatred as hatred of a group because of its religious belief or lack thereof. Police are responsible for investigating criminal offenses and for gathering evidence; the Crown Prosecution Service, which is an independent body and the main public prosecution service for England and Wales, is responsible for deciding whether a suspect should be charged with a criminal offense. The maximum penalty for inciting religious hatred is seven years in prison. If there is evidence of religious hostility in connection with any crime, it is a “religiously aggravated offense” and carries a higher maximum penalty than does the underlying crime alone.

In Scotland, the Hate Crime and Public Order Act, a law the Scottish Parliament passed in 2021 that will come into effect in 2024, criminalizes “stirring up hatred” on the basis of, among other things, religion or perceived religious affiliation.

Northern Ireland does not have specific hate crime laws, but legislation allows for increased sentencing if offenses are judged to be motivated by hostility based on religion, among other aggravating factors.

By law, the General Register Office for England and Wales governs the registration and legal recognition of places of worship in England and Wales. A representative of the congregation, for example, a proprietor, trustee, or religious head, must complete and submit an application form and pay a fee of £29 ($37) to a local registrar. The General Registrar Office typically provides registration certificates to the local superintendent registrar within 20 working days. The law also states buildings, rooms, or other premises may be registered as meeting places for religious worship upon payment of a fee. The General Register Office for England and Wales keeps a record of the registration, and the place of worship is assigned a “worship number.” Registration is not compulsory, but it provides certain financial advantages and is also required before a place of worship may be registered as a venue for marriages. Registered places of worship are exempt from paying taxes and benefit from participating in the country’s Gift Aid program.

Religious groups may, but are not required to, register as charities with the Charity Commission on the same basis as nonreligious charities. Gift Aid allows charities to claim back the 25 percent basic rate of tax already paid on donations by the donor, boosting the value of a donation by one quarter. The law only applies in England and Wales.

The law requires RE and worship for children between the ages of three and 18 in state-run schools, with the content decided at the local level. Specialist schoolteachers, rather than religious groups, teach the syllabus. Parents may request to exempt their children from RE, and in England and Wales, students may opt out themselves at age 14, although religious worship continues until students leave school at either age 16 or 18. State schools that are not legally designated as religious require the RE curriculum to be nondenominational and refrain from attempting to convert students. RE instruction must also include the practices of principal non-Christian religions in the country. All schools not designated as religious, whether private or state run, must maintain neutrality in their interpretation of the RE syllabus and avoid presenting one faith or belief as greater than another.

State schools in England and Wales that are not legally designated as religious are required to practice daily collective prayer or worship of “a wholly or mainly … Christian character.” School teachers lead these assemblies; however, parents have the legal right to request that their children not participate in collective prayer or worship. Teachers, unless they are employed by faith-based schools, may decline participation in collective worship, without prejudice. The law permits sixth-form students (generally 16- to 19-year-olds in the final two years of secondary school) to withdraw from worship without parental permission or action. State schools not designated as religious are free to hold other religious ceremonies as they choose.

The government requires schools to consider the practices of different religious groups when setting dress codes for students. This includes wearing or carrying specific religious artifacts, not cutting hair, dressing modestly, or covering the head. Guidance from the Department for Education requires schools to balance the rights of individual students against the best interests of the school community as a whole; it acknowledges schools could be justified in restricting individuals’ rights to manifest their religion or belief when necessary, for example, to promote cohesion and good order.

In Scotland, only denominational (faith-based) schools practice daily collective prayer or worship; however, religious observance at least six times per year is compulsory in all Scottish schools. Religious observance is defined as “community acts which aim to promote the spiritual development of all members of the school’s community.” Examples of religious observance include school assemblies and events to recognize religious occasions, including Christmas and Easter. Parents or legal guardians may elect to have their children opt out from this requirement, but students may not make this decision themselves.

In Bermuda, by law, students attending state schools may, but are not required to, participate in collective worship, characterized by educational officials as reciting the Lord’s Prayer, although the practice is uncommon, but the law prohibits worship “distinctive of any particular religious group.” At the high school level, students are required to take a course that explores various religions until year nine (ages 11-14); in years 10 and 11 (ages 15-16), courses on religion are optional.

There are two faith-based private schools in Bermuda that operate from kindergarten through high school. One follows the guidance of the North American division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The other follows principles of the Catholic Church. There is one primary school that follows Islamic principles.

In England and Wales, the government determines whether to establish a faith-based school when there is evidence of demand, such as petitions from parents, religious groups, teachers, or other entities. Faith-based schools must follow the national curriculum but may choose what to teach in religious studies. They also have different admissions criteria and staffing policies, which may relate to religious beliefs, from state schools. If a faith-based school is not oversubscribed, then the school must offer a place to any child, but if the school is oversubscribed, it may use faith as a criterion for acceptance. Independent (private) faith-based schools are eligible to claim “charitable status,” which allows for tax exemptions. In faith-based schools that the government establishes, students may opt out of religious studies; in private faith-based schools, religious studies may be mandatory with no opt-out provisions.

In Scotland, local authorities may establish a denominational school for any denomination or faith if they are satisfied that such a school is required, either in response to representations made to them by any church or denominational body acting on behalf of parents, or on their own initiative. These schools are run in the same way as nondenominational state schools, except that special time may be set aside for religious services, and an unpaid religious supervisor reports to the local authority on the religious instruction in the school. Independent faith-based schools are eligible for some tax exemptions, such as Gift Aid. As in England and Wales, in government-established denominational schools, students may opt out of religious services and instruction, but independent faith-based schools are not required to allow students to opt out of such activities.

Almost all schools in Northern Ireland receive state support, with approximately 90 percent of students attending Protestant or Catholic schools. Approximately 7 percent of school-age children attend religiously integrated schools that have admissions criteria designed to enroll equal numbers of Catholic and Protestant children as well as children from other religious and cultural backgrounds. Students of different faiths may attend Protestant, Catholic, or integrated schools. Integrated schools are not secular but, according to the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, are “essentially Christian in character and welcome all faiths and none.” RE – a core syllabus designed by the Northern Ireland Department of Education, Church of Ireland, and Catholic, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches – is compulsory in all government-funded schools, and by law, each school day must include collective Christian worship. All schools receiving government funding must teach RE; however, students may opt out of the classes and collective worship. Catholic-managed schools draw on the Catholic tradition for their RE; other schools, including Protestant schools, which are managed by the Department of Education, may draw on world religions.

An estimated 30 sharia councils operate parallel to the national legal system. They adjudicate Islamic religious matters, including religious divorces, which are not recognized under civil law. Participants may submit cases to the councils on a voluntary basis. The councils do not have the legal status of courts, although they have legal status as mediation and arbitration bodies. As such, rulings may not be appealed in the courts.

The law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief or the lack of religion or belief and requires “reasonable” religious accommodation in the workplace for employees. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing legislation prohibiting religious and other discrimination. The EHRC researches and conducts inquiries into religious and other discrimination in England, Scotland, and Wales. The Minister for Women and Equalities appoints the members. If the EHRC finds a violation, it has a range of powers at its disposal, including offering guidance or initiating court proceedings, resulting in binding, legally enforceable judgments. The EHRC receives government funds but operates independently. The Northern Ireland equivalent to the EHRC is the Equality Commission.

In Northern Ireland, the law bans discrimination on the grounds of religious belief in employment; however, schools may be selective on the grounds of religion when recruiting teachers. In the rest of the country, the law prohibits any discrimination, including employment discrimination, based on religious belief, unless the employer can show a genuine requirement for a particular religion.

There are separate legal regimes for civil marriage and civil partnerships. Civil partnerships are formed when parties sign and register a civil partnership document, with no words required to be spoken. Civil marriages are solemnized by saying a prescribed set of vows. In England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, civil partnership ceremonies must be nonreligious. They must not include religious music or readings and must be free of obvious, specifically religious connotations. In Scotland, civil partnership ceremonies may be conducted by religious or humanist leaders. Nonreligious belief (i.e., humanist) marriages are legally recognized in Scotland and Northern Ireland but not in England and Wales, where “religious” marriages must take place in registered places of worship. In England and Wales, humanists must have a civil marriage alongside any humanist wedding if they want to be legally married. There are four categories of religious marriage: Church of England and Church in Wales (Anglican), Jewish, Quaker, and others (e.g., Hindu, Muslim, or other Christian). Anglican marriages must be conducted by a member of the clergy, who registers the marriage. Jewish and Quaker marriages are conducted in accordance with appropriate religious rites, and the officiant registers the marriage. In England and Wales, an Islamic marriage is recognized as a religious ceremony but does not provide the benefits of a completed civil marriage. A couple may be afforded the benefits of a completed civil marriage provided they were married under sharia in a country where this type of marriage is recognized by law or if they proceed with a UK civil marriage in addition to the Islamic marriage. Other religious marriages must take place in a registered place of worship, have at least two witnesses present, and include the necessary declarations; a registrar or a person certified by the registrar general (e.g., the imam) must then register the marriage.

In Bermuda, laws support the legality of religious marriages, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Baha’i marriages. The law supports civil unions for heterosexual and same-sex couples. Civil union ceremonies must be performed by the registrar general, deputy registrar, or domestic partnership officer, with two witnesses.

Citing a limited broadcast spectrum, the law prohibits religious groups from holding national radio licenses, public teletext licenses, more than one television service license, and/or radio and television multiplex licenses, which would allow a group to offer multiple channels as part of a single bundle of programming.

Twenty-six senior bishops of the Church of England sit in the UK House of Lords (upper house of Parliament) as representatives of the state church. Known as the Lords Spiritual, they read prayers at the start of each daily meeting and play a full role in the work of the House of Lords.

The law requires visa applicants wishing to enter the country as “ministers of religion” to have a certificate of sponsorship for their job from a “bona fide religious organization,” proof of their knowledge of English, personal savings, and a travel history over the previous year. To qualify as bona fide, a religious organization must meet a series of criteria, including that it be a registered charitable organization and a faith-based community with a common system of belief and spiritual goals and that it not exclude anyone on the basis of gender, nationality, or ethnicity or breach the law or work against the public interest. The law defines “minister of religion” as a religious functionary whose main regular duties include leading a congregation in performing the rites and rituals of the faith and in preaching the essentials of the creed. “Minister of religion” includes anyone doing preaching and pastoral work or coming to the country as a missionary or member of a religious order.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

Abuses Involving Violence, Detention, or Mass Resettlement

On October 20, London Mayor Khan held a roundtable meeting with Jewish and Muslim faith leaders following the rise in hate crimes after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and the ensuing Israeli-Hamas fighting and said that the police would “take a zero-tolerance approach” to such crimes. On November 3, Mayor Khan issued a statement on the impact of the Middle East situation in London, stating London would continue to fund and support community-led groups to challenge hate. He said that London had invested almost £11 million ($13.9 million) to help tackle hate and extremism, including through a £3 million ($3.8 million) Shared Endeavour fund “to empower thousands of Londoners to stand up to hate and intolerance.”

In August following a mental health evaluation, the Wood Green Court issued a 10-year restraining order against Abdullah Qureshi, barring him from any contact with his victims, and ordered his indefinite detention in a secure medical facility until it is determined that it is safe to release him. In 2022, a court convicted Qureshi of carrying out two separate attacks against three Orthodox Jews earlier that year.

In March, the Scottish government published its national hate crime strategy, which confirmed that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, passed in 2021, would not go into effect until early 2024. The law, which extends legal protections for vulnerable groups with a new offense of “stirring up hatred,” was criticized by religious and cultural groups, writers, journalists, free speech campaigners, and police officials, who raised concerns about its enforcement and impact on free expression. The strategy cited the need to install new information technology systems, due to be completed by year’s end, across all justice bodies in Scotland, including Police Scotland, to support hate crime data collection and record management. The Scottish Government’s then Minister for Equalities and Older People Christina McKelvie wrote in the strategy’s foreword that the document aimed to “ensure that people see and feel a positive change” as the Scottish government worked “to prevent and tackle hatred and prejudice in all of its forms,” including religiously motivated hate crime and prejudice. A Hate Crime Strategy Delivery Plan was published in November 2023. As part of the delivery plan, the Scottish government said it was working with NGO partners to educate children and young people to recognize prejudice and hate crime, including religiously motivated hate crime.

Abuses Limiting Religious Belief and Expression

The National Secular Society continued its campaign against Northern Ireland’s blasphemy laws, stating on its website that such laws were “illiberal, anachronistic, and incompatible with the fundamental human rights to freedom of expression and freedom of religion or belief.”

As of year’s end, the government had not adopted a working definition of “Islamophobia.” In September, the think tank Civitas published a report titled Islamophobia Revisited, expressing concern about a definition of “Islamophobia” that it said 16 percent of local authorities in England, 23 percent in Wales, and 25 percent in Scotland had adopted and that was “previously rejected by the Government.” That definition, published in 2018 by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) (an informal group of cross-party parliamentarians with interest in a particular subject) on British Muslims, states that “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” In the report’s foreword, former Daily Telegraph editor Lord Charles Moore argued that “Freedom of religion is rightly defended, but so must freedom of speech be…. To argue that criticism of Muslim ideas is a form of racism is, in most cases, a profound mistake. If the … APPG [on British Muslims] definition were to prevail, our society would cease to put all religions on the same footing and would empower those unrepresentative Muslim leaders who are keenest to silence critics.” A spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain accused the Civitas report of “willfully misrepresenting the APPG on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia.” In response to the Civitas report, the APPG on British Muslims released a statement saying the adoption of the APPG’s definition by councils showed “the need for such a definition to be adopted by the Government.”

In September, the European Legal Support Center, which described itself as the first organization of lawyers “mandated to defend and empower the Palestine solidarity movement in mainland Europe and the UK” and the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies published a report stating that the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism by most UK universities “undermined academic freedom and freedom of expression.” According to the report, almost 75 percent of UK universities had adopted the definition after the secretary of state for education in 2020 threatened financial consequences for institutions that did not adopt it. The Guardian cited a Department of Education spokesperson, who said the IHRA definition was a “vital tool in tackling antisemitism” and that a report by the independent Taskforce on Antisemitism in Higher Education “showed no universities that had adopted the definition said it had in any way restricted freedom of speech or academic research.”

Abuses Involving the Ability of Individuals to Engage in Religious Activities Alone or In Community with Others

In February, a broad coalition of children’s rights organizations called on the government to end compulsory collective worship in English schools by giving children under 16 the right to withdraw from such sessions. On its website, Humanists UK called for replacing “collective worship in schools with inclusive assemblies suitable for children of all backgrounds.”

The pastoral needs of prisoners continued to be addressed, in part, through chaplains paid for by the UK Ministry of Justice, rather than by religious groups. All chaplains worked as part of a multifaith team, the size and breakdown of which was determined by the number of inmates in the prison and their religious composition. Prison service regulations stated, “Chaplaincy provision must reflect the faith denomination requirements of the prison.”

In 2022, the most recent year for which figures were available, there were approximately 257 regular chaplains in the armed forces, 256 of whom were Christian. There were 111 reserve chaplains serving in the military, 108 of whom were Christian. The armed forces also employed five civilian chaplains as full-time civil servants to care for Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, and Muslim service personnel. In November, the Ministry of Defense announced it would introduce nonreligious pastoral officers in 2024.

There were approximately 1,200 prison chaplains in England and Wales, according to the government, though a breakdown of this figure by religious denomination was unavailable. In January, during debate in the House of Lords, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice Lord Christopher Bellamy proposed replacing the prison Chaplaincy Council with a “Chaplaincy Faith and Belief Forum” representing all faiths, after stating that the council was no longer reflective of the “breadth of faith and belief of those in prison or on probation.”

Humanists UK continued to say the state should increase the availability of nonreligious pastoral support in prisons and hospitals.

Under the Places of Worship Scheme, which applied to England and Wales, the UK Government announced in June that places of worship would receive £28 million ($35.6 million) to finance security, the same amount as in 2022. The funding was available through two programs: £3.5 million ($4.4 million) for the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme for non-Muslim sites and £24.5 million ($31.1 million) for the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme. According to the government, these programs aimed to “reduce hate crime” at places of worship and to provide applicants with physical protective security measures such as closed-circuit television, secure fencing, and intruder alarms. Muslim applicants would also be eligible for security guard services. Then Security Minister Tom Tugendhat stated, “We will defend against any form of hatred targeting our communities and are committed to protecting all faiths.”

The Places of Worship Scheme was open to places of worship listed with the relevant statutory listing agency (the British Listed Buildings for England, Scotland, and Wales or Northern Ireland Buildings databases) and that served “formally constituted religious organizations.” The sole exception was the Jewish community, which received £15 million ($19 million) – £1 million ($1.2 million) more than in 2022 – from a separate government grant administered by the NGO CST. The grant funded commercial security guards at Jewish community buildings across the UK with priority placed on schools. In October, the government announced an additional funding of £3 million ($3.8 million) for the CST to support security equipment and additional guards at schools, synagogues, and other community sites.

The UK government’s Listed Places of Worship (LPW) Grant Scheme issued grants covering the value-added tax on repairs of more than £1,000 ($1,300) to listed buildings used as places of worship. In December, the government noted that nearly 5,000 religious buildings in the UK received a share of up to £42 million ($53.4 million) in public funding during the year to support conservation of listed places of worship. This program is funded until March 31, 2025, according to authorities. The LPW, run by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, focused on preserving cultural heritage, providing value-added tax relief on repairs to worship structures, turret clocks, pews, bells, and pipe organs, in addition to associated professional fees. All faiths and areas of the country were eligible for the plan, but the places of worship had to be listed in the British Listed Buildings or Northern Ireland Buildings databases.

In June, members of Parliament unanimously supported a bill to facilitate, and remove legal obstacles to, the construction of a £100 million ($127.2 million) Holocaust Memorial and Learning Center in Victoria Tower Gardens, a park in London, but Parliament did not vote on the bill by year’s end. Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities Michael Gove introduced the bill in February. After parliamentarians expressed support for the bill, the secretary stated, “The government is absolutely determined to complete the Holocaust Memorial … to preserve the memory of what happened for ourselves and for all future generations.” In 2022, the High Court overturned permission granted by the local planning authority to build the memorial and center in Victoria Tower Gardens, ruling that the law required that it be maintained as a public garden.

According to 2019 data, the latest available, there were 6,802 state-funded, faith-based schools in England, representing 34 percent of all state-funded mainstream schools and serving approximately 1.9 million students. Church of England schools were the most common type among primary schools (26 percent); Catholic schools were the most common at the secondary level (9 percent). Additionally, at the primary and secondary levels, there were 72 “other Christian,” 36 Jewish, 25 Methodist, 14 Islamic, six Sikh, five Hindu, and two multifaith state-funded schools. According to statistics from 2022, the latest available, there were 371 government-funded denominational schools in Scotland: 360 Catholic, seven interdenominational, three Episcopalian, and one Jewish.

On October 25, Humanists UK stated it had intervened in what it called a landmark RE case at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal. The case pertained to a Department for Education appeal of a 2022 ruling by the High Court in Northern Ireland that the practice of exclusively Christian RE and worship in Northern Ireland schools “amounts to discrimination.” Northern Ireland Humanists Coordinator Boyd Sleator stated that RE and collective worship in Northern Ireland had “long been known to be discriminatory against children from non-Christian backgrounds.” Sleator added that a May judgment by the High Court in England on RE in England demonstrated that human rights arguments around inclusive education are sound. In that case, the High Court ruled it was unlawful for the Kent County Council to refuse humanist Steve Bowen’s membership in its Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education.

Humanists UK stated nonreligious belief marriages should receive legal recognition in England and Wales, as they do in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Media reported the UK Ministry of Justice stated that allowing humanist weddings would require the creation of a new category of marriage, known as “belief marriage.” According to an April report in The Guardian, television presenters Stephen Fry and Sandi Toksvig, along with the former chair of the Conservative Party-affiliated LGBT+ Conservatives group, Elena Bunbury, and her Labour and Liberal Democrat Party equivalents, wrote to then Justice Secretary Dominic Raab, stating that “legal recognition would have a profound impact.”

On December 5, Harriet Bradley, an emerita professor at the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England and former member of the Bristol City Council, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that somebody should “blow up” the venue of the forthcoming Jewish Labour Movement’s (JLM) national One Day Conference. Following the post, the JLM urged the University of Bristol to “send a powerful message about the lack of tolerance the faculty has for such hateful, highly dangerous, and inflammatory behavior.” The University of Bristol said it was “deeply dismayed” by the comment, and both universities withdrew the professor’s honorary emerita title with immediate effect. The professor subsequently apologized and said her remark was “made as a joke.” Avon and Somerset Police said they were investigating the post as “an incident of malicious communication.” At year’s end, the investigation was ongoing.

In January, barrister Rebecca Tuck issued her report on antisemitism in the National Union of Students (NUS), a group representing university and college students. The NUS had commissioned the report in 2022 after the Department of Education suspended engagement with the organization following long-running allegations of antisemitism. According to the BBC and other media, the report found Jewish students had been harassed and the NUS had failed to “sufficiently challenge antisemitism and hostility toward Jews in its own structures.” The report cited instances of antisemitism on campus and at NUS venues. For example, first-year university students had swastikas drawn on their shirts during “white T-shirt parties” and “the final solution” was language used during an NUS meeting concerning an antiracism committee. The Union of Jewish students called the report “damning,” and NUS Director Kat Stark called the antisemitic incidents the report cited “shocking.” Tuck issued 11 recommendations that included training for NUS staff and the production of antisemitism education materials. The NUS apologized to Jewish students and said it would follow the recommendations and implement a “zero-tolerance” policy toward antisemitism.

In January, leaders of multiple faith and belief communities and political leaders from across the country commemorated International Holocaust Memorial Day in a ceremony. King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, stated that “in learning from the horrors of the Holocaust and the genocides which followed, we can all recommit to the vital principles of freedom of conscience, generosity of spirit, and care for others that are the surest defenses of hope.”

In October, the government’s Online Safety Bill, which requires technology firms to use a range of measures to “protect users from illegal content and activity online, as well as protecting children from harmful content,” including inciting violence and hate crime, became law. Ofcom, the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for telecommunications, commenced a consultations process on November 9, as part of its role as regulator of the law, to establish new regulations. At year’s end, Ofcom’s process to establish new regulations continued.

On October 30, then Home Secretary Suella Braverman labeled pro-Palestinian rallies as “hate marches.” Muslim Council of Britain Secretary General Zara Mohammed told media that Braverman’s rhetoric was “very divisive language” and “very dangerous.” Mohammed added that such political rhetoric could “embolden extreme right-wing views, racism, and Islamophobia.” On November 15, a day after her resignation as home secretary, Braverman accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of failing to “rise to the challenge posed by the increasingly vicious antisemitism and extremism displayed on our streets since Hamas’s terrorist atrocities of 7 October.”

Conservative Member of Parliament Fiona Bruce, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief and vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion or Belief, was re-elected for a second term as chair of the 42-country International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance. Throughout the year, she attended domestic and international events and posted to social media in support of religious freedom and belief. On August 22, to mark the International Day Commemorating the victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, she posted on X, “We must all resolve to do more to prevent these acts of violence and persecution, promoting and protecting freedom of religion or belief for all.”

In October, First Minister Yousaf and senior leaders representing Scottish Jewish and Muslim communities issued a joint statement pledging to work together to build community cohesion and goodwill across Scotland and oppose all forms of hate crimes, bigotry, and xenophobia. They stated, “We express today our mutual respect and understanding, recognizing our common humanity, and with love and compassion … acknowledge the suffering caused to innocent life … and wholeheartedly pray for the full recovery of the many injured and for those who have lost loved ones.”