Religion or Belief

In Swansea, there are a variety of faith groups as well as people who are of no religion at all.

The Religion or Belief equality strand will be incorporated within the Council's Single Equalities Scheme to be implemented during 2009 and which will deal with the six equality strands of Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Age, Disability and Religion or Belief.

According to the 2001 Census, 71.0% of residents stated that they were Christian while 19.8% and 7.5% respectively, declared that they had no religion or did not state their religion.

Other faith groups represented in the community are the Muslims, with 1.0% of the population, Buddhists (.2%), Sikhs (.1%), Jews (.1%) and Hindu (.1%).

The remaining .2% represents faiths such as Baha'i, International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Jain, Taoism, Yungdrung Bon, etc.

There are also a growing number of people in Swansea who may or may not belong to an organised religious group but who have a belief which is philosophical and similar to a religious belief. This includes members of spiritual groups which value the essence of all the world's spiritual traditions, but do not belong to a single faith, under the umbrella of Holistic Spirituality.

Jews and Sikhs, as well as being faith groups are also recognised as racial groups under the Race Relations Act. Therefore discrimination against them on grounds of their faith would also amount to racial discrimination. For other religious groups such as Muslims, if religious discrimination in effect amounts to unlawful indirect racial discrimination against a 'racial group' the Race Relations Act might also afford a remedy.

The City and County's Equal Opportunities Policy, makes a commitment to non-discrimination against people on grounds (among others) of religion or belief. This is in compliance with

• The Human Rights Act which guarantees the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and
• The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003which defines religion or belief as any religious belief or similar philosophical belief: but not including any philosophical or political belief unless it is similar to a religious belief.

The Council is currently undertaking a programme of Equality Impact Assessments of its functions, policies and procedures to ensure that they do not have a negative impact on service users and staff on the basis of their religion or belief (or none), race, age, gender etc.

Click the link on the right for the Equality & Diversity Action Plan for 2008-09 in Word format.

Side Links:

Swansea Faiths Forum http://www.face2faith.net/index.html

ACAS guidance http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/f/l/religion_1.pdf

The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2003/20031660.htm

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