Catholic adoption agency's plea to bar gays rejected once again

The Leeds-based Catholic Care organisation applied to be allowed to restrict its services to heterosexual prospective parents on religious grounds.

But the independent regulator for charities in England and Wales found against Catholic Care, following objections from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which said such discrimination breached Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Catholic Care won a High Court judgment in March which allowed an appeal against a decision of the Charity Tribunal in June last year that had upheld the Charity Commission's original decision not to allow it to discriminate.

Catholic Care officials had said it had to bar gay couples from its adoption assessment and advice service if it was to retain its funding from the Roman Catholic church.

In a statement, the Charity Commission acknowledged Catholic Care offered a "valuable, high quality adoption service".

But it had not demonstrated "sufficiently convincing and weighty reasons" to restrict its services to heterosexuals.

The commission found that:

It was beneficial to children waiting to be adopted to have as wide a pool of prospective parents as possible;

Discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation was serious as it departed from the principle of treating people equally;

Even if Catholic Care closed, children would still be placed into adoptive care by other means;

Local authority officials found gay couples were often suitable prospective parents for "hard to place children";

Respect for religious views was not a justification for discriminating against gays, because of the essentially public nature of adoption services.

Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: "This has been a complex and sensitive decision which the Commission has reached carefully, following the principles set out by the High Court, case law and on the basis of the evidence before us.

"Clearly the interests of children are paramount.

"In certain circumstances, it is not against the law for charities to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation.

"However, because the prohibition on such discrimination is a fundamental principle of human rights law, such discrimination can only be permitted in the most compelling circumstances.

"We have concluded that in this case the reasons Catholic Care have set out do not justify their wish to discriminate."

A spokeswoman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: "Any charity that intends to exclude a specific group of people from the services or benefits it provides has to be able to show that this unequal treatment is justified for very strong reasons.

"The Equality and Human Rights Commission intervened in this case to argue that an organisation cannot be registered as a charity and receive benefits such as tax relief unless it acts in the public benefit.

"A charity should also comply with the Human Rights Act which outlaws discrimination."

He added: "We are pleased that both the High Court and Charity Commission accepted our arguments when coming to their decision."

No one at Catholic Care, which serves the dioceses of Leeds, Middlesbrough, and Hallam in South Yorkshire, was available for comment yesterday.