The Chancery Division of the High Court had remitted to the Charity Commission for reconsideration whether or not Catholic Care (which refused as a matter of theological principle to provide adoption services to same-sex couples) should be permitted to change its objects so as to bring its activities within the exemption for charities in regulation 18 of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007. Having duly reconsidered the matter, the Commission refused consent to Catholic Care amending its charitable objects to restrict adoption services to heterosexual prospective parents only, on the following grounds:
i. the interests of the children were paramount and it was in the interests of children waiting to be adopted that the pool of prospective parents should be as wide as possible;
ii. discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation is a serious matter because it departed from the principle of treating people with equal respect;
iii. if the charity were to close its adoption service, the children who would have been placed with prospective parents supported by the charity were likely to be placed with prospective parents through other channels;
iv. the local authorities concerned considered that homosexual people were suitable prospective parents for hard-to-place children and such adoptions had been successful; and
v. the Chancery Division had indicated that in the circumstances of this particular case, respect for religious views did not justify discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation. [Frank Cranmer]
