Meeting Opens
Independent Chair Sir John Hayes MP conducted the official business of the AGM.
Sir John confirmed that the meeting was quorate, with 8 parliamentarians in attendance at the beginning of the meeting.
Election of Officers
All roles were nominated by Wera Hobhouse MP and seconded by Ben Lake MP
- Chair: Zöe Franklin MP
- Officer: Anna Dixon MP
- Officer: Danny Kruger MP
- Officer: Baroness Berridge
Income and Expenditure Statement
The APPG Income and Expenditure statement was presented and agreed by those present.
Annual Report
The APPG Annual report was presented and agreed by those present.
Due Diligence Statement
The APPG Due Diligence statement was presented and agreed by those present.
Background of APPG
Daniel Singleton, FaithAction
The APPG on Faith and Society came about as part of discussion between FaithAction and Stephen Timms around how faith could engage with the Big Society strategy and how to support faith based social action.
Group formed and took evidence from different areas of society. Faith groups felt there was a squeamishness working with local government. The Faith Covenant was developed to help alleviate that.
The Faith Covenant has been one of the APPG’s main areas of work since its inception, but it has also looked at other areas including faith in prisons and faith in maternity.
Other groups, such as universities and faith organisations are often keen to share their findings with the APPG, becoming a key point of connection for their work into Parliament.
Faith Covenant
Jeremy Simmons, FaithAction
Faith Covenants were developed to promote joint working between faith and local authorities. 33 local authorities have signed covering around 12 million people.
This year has seen the Faith Covenant evaluated, to enable the APPG to look at whether the Faith Covenant has been effective where it has been implemented. The evaluation has produced an interesting and insightful report, showing that Faith Covenants have been successful overall but that in some areas there is room for more action.
Work on the Faith Covenant has now moved onto looking to provide support to current areas.
Comments
Zöe Franklin feels there is an opportunity to promote Faith Covenant during Local Government Reorganisation. Zöe Franklin and Anna Dixon have spoken about reaching out to areas undergoing changes, particularly through local MPs.
Future areas of work
Zöe Franklin noted that the APPG have been working with Muslim Think Tank Equi over the last year, particularly with running an event to launch a report into mental health and young people, with a particular focus on Muslim young people but which has a wider remit to help on this across all faiths. Zöe would like to see work with Equi, and others, continue.
The APPG will continue with Faith in Partnership Week, with the week this year seeing a number of events including the launch of Gather Movement’s A Hidden Welfare System on Our Doorstep report and Daniel Singleton and Zöe Franklin attending the Faith Charities Forum to speak on faith, government and social cohesion. The Faith Covenant will also feature, with further work around Faith Covenant support being launched and a Faith Covenant Forum held. There will also be content produced by the FaithAction team and others throughout the week, including blogs, videos and other website content.
Zöe also noted that Anna Dixon has been active on work around faith and homelessness and faith and public discourse, with events being planned around both.
The FaithAction team will continue to bring forward any approaches from researchers.
Zöe Franklin feels strongly that there is a place for faith in social cohesion conversations, and the officers will seek opportunities to engage on this, including seeking a meeting with the new Faith Minister when one is appointed after the upcoming reshuffle.
Zöe Franklin also encouraged attendees to suggest any reactive work they felt the APPG should be involved with, which can be considered by the officers.
Comments
Public Worship
Baroness Berridge is interested in exploring a piece of work around public spaces and public worship. She is aware of a lot of good work already being done in this area but feels there is space for a guidance document of local authorities to help them plan and prepare for public acts of worship. She declared she does have an interest in this space as a trustee of Freedom Declared Foundation. Baroness Berridge confirmed she would be happy to work with Danny Kruger on a scoping piece on this work.
G20 and Faith
Lord Rees raised that the UK will be hosting the G20 summit next year, and the G7 summit in 2028. Lord Rook is the chair of the G20 Interfaith Forum, running alongside the G20 summit. Lord Rees feels there is an opportunity for the APPG to get involved in the G20 Interfaith Forum. Zöe will pick up this work with Lord Rees and Lord Rook to see what opportunities there could be.
Expanding the APPG membership
Attendees reflected on opportunities to raise awareness among parliamentarians of the purpose and aims of the APPG, to expand engagement and membership.
Close
Zöe Franklin thanked attendees for their contributions and closed the meeting.