Mess surrounding Halal meat in schools was entirely avoidable
ONE of the most voluminous responses to this column this year came when we touched on the issue of Halal meat and its use in school meals.
One of the early actions of the new Tory leadership at Lancashire County Council – elected in May, just weeks before the national Tory Party suffered its election embarrassment at the national polls – was to review the county council’s use of Halal meat, from animals not stunned before slaughter, in school meals.
There had been no obvious outcry against the use of Halal meat in school dinners, and it certainly wasn’t one of the Tories’ more memorable election pledges when canvassing for votes here in Rossendale.
Yet according to County Council reports, it was decided by the new leader, Geoff Driver, in the first weeks of his new reign in June, that a review of the policy around Halal meat should be undertaken.
It’s an issue which, when raised, does polarise opinion, however. A bit like Brexit in some ways – were that many of us really agitating for a vote on the EU prior to the referendum, yet now hold very strong views one way or the other? It feels the same with Halal meat.
Maybe that’s why LCC’s ruling cabinet chose to initially discuss an issue which would affect 12,000 pupils in 27 schools across the county in private.
Their decision, following private discussions, was to put it to an open vote at the next full council meeting.
Councillors voted 41 to 24 to ban Halal meat, with around 15 councillors abstaining.
So is Halal meat now consigned to history in Lancashire’s schools? Well, no. The Lancashire Council of Mosques has announced it is seeking a judicial review on the ban, claiming the council did not adequately consult over the decision.
Given the report presented to councillors ahead of their vote said the LCM had not been contacted ‘to avoid any unnecessary upset,’ it’s probably not a surprise they don’t feel consulted.
Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, Cllr Driver said: “If it is felt that we haven’t consulted appropriately before we made the decision we will do that because we clearly don’t want to either break the law or cause the county council any unnecessary expenditure.”
The sad reality of this debate is that LCC doesn’t have the power to ban Halal meat from the county’s schools – just not to offer it to the schools it provides the catering at.
And LCC caters to 12,000 pupils – there are 351,000 people aged under 19 in Lancashire.
And there are more than 27 primary schools in Rossendale alone.
So the real risk from any Halal ban from LCC is a financial one – schools with pupils whose parents expect Halal meat to be served for religious reasons will end up having to look elsewhere for their school dinner provisions, or face all manner of challenges about the fairness of their school dinners service.
Headteachers make the ultimate decision here, not the county council – that’s the way education funding works these days.
If they are faced with choosing to penalise some members of their school community, or maintain existing services by changing contractors, what do you think they will do?
That could cost LCC £2.5m a year – of which £900k is spent buying in supplies from local companies.
There is no obvious solution to this very sensitive issue, but this impasse was all too predictable.
The change in policy was even predicted to potentially provoke hate crime – and that headteachers and governing bodies would be expected to ‘manage this negative impact.’
The question every councillor who voted in favour of the Halal ban based on the evidence they received should be asking is: “Why didn’t I see this coming?”
Followed quickly by “How on earth do we get out of this entirely avoidable mess?”