The Northern Ireland Assembly committee for the Executive Office has begun its examination of the Fair Employment (School Teachers) Bill, which would amend fair employment legislation to ensure schools are no longer permitted to use religious beliefs as grounds in deciding who to recruit to teaching posts.

The private member’s bill has been proposed by Chris Lyttle, the Alliance MLA for East Belfast, though it is now unlikely to be approved by MLAs before the end of the mandate.

Sinéad McLaughlin, chairperson of the committee, said: “Fair employment legislation exists here to make it illegal for employers to discriminate on the grounds of religion and political opinion. However, along with clergy, the recruitment of teachers is currently exempt from such legislation.

“The Fair Employment (School Teachers) Bill aims to remove the exception for school teachers, and put them in the same position as other employees across Northern Ireland. Removing the exception will also mean that employers of teachers will not have to monitor the community background of applicants, and that teachers will not be able to bring a complaint of religious discrimination relating to recruitment.

“Although this bill has come to the committee very late on in the mandate, we are committed to examining its proposals and listening to the views of those who could be affected by the bill. We have designed a short survey to gather views on what people think of the bill’s proposals. We look forward to learning the results of the consultation and making recommendations on the bill to the Assembly.”

The committee has launched a public consultation on the bill, which can be found here.