East Ayrshire Council says it has no plans to remove voting powers for religious representatives on education matters.

Councils are legally obliged to have three religious representatives when education is being discussed at cabinet.

However, they do not have to give them the same voting rights as elected members.

Despite that, East Ayrshire Council has given these rights to the three religious representatives, one from the Church of Scotland, one from the Roman Catholic Church and one other chosen from another religious body.

 Fraser Sutherland, the chief executive of the Humanist Society Scotland, recently argued that the number of councils looking at removing voting rights is accelerating and suggested that most of the 32 councils in Scotland could remove voting rights in the next five years.

In 2019. East Ayrshire Council considered ending the policy of non-elected members, including church, parent and teacher representatives, having the same vote as councillors on education matters.

However, councillors opted to maintain the policy after consulting the groups.

In the four years from 2019 to 2022, just three councils decided to remove voting rights from non-elected members – Perth and Kinross, Moray and Scottish Borders.

That number has already been matched in 2023 in Orkney, Fife and Highland councils.

The requirement for councils to appoint three religious representatives is embedded in the Local Government Scotland Act (1973).

However, the legislation does not require the representatives to be given a vote.

The significant power given to religious groups comes as the number of people identifying with a faith continues to drop.

The last census in 2011 showed just over 53 per cent Scots identified with religious groups, a drop of around 12 per cent on 2001.

It is expected that current figures would see religious affiliation drop below half.

A spokesperson from East Ayrshire Council said that there were no plans to revisit the 2019 decision.

They said that councillors took the view that the status quo ‘was the best fit to have an effective and fully functional cabinet as one of the main elements of the council’s overall decision making arrangements’.

They said that the decision to have a teacher or parent representative, even without voting rights, on the cabinet was not a legal requirement.

The spokesperson added: “Council took the decision that both the teacher and parent representative are afforded a vote as it is deemed beneficial for all non-elected members to have an equal say and an equal vote.”

Megan Manson, head of campaigns at the National Secular Society, said:  “Religious appointees on councils are undemocratic, unrepresentative and unjustified.

“No one should be granted a privileged place in local democracy just because of their religion.

“If Scotland is to be a country where all citizens irrespective of background have an equal chance to participate in decision making, it can’t give one select group a privileged role.”