The National Secular Society has urged Nottinghamshire County Council to end school transport policies which privilege religious families.

The council is currently reviewing its ‘discretionary faith transport offer’, which provides public funding for the transportation of pupils who attend a faith school on grounds of religion.

The offer includes public funding for travel for pupils eligible for free school meals where their chosen faith school is beyond walking distance, but also for a “discounted annual travel pass” for pupils attending a school on grounds of religion or belief “where statutory low‑income eligibility does not apply”.

Exemptions in equality law allow local authorities to provide ‘free’ transport to a faith school if the local authority considers it to be the nearest suitable school and if the parents’ school preference is based on religion.

The discretionary faith transport provision costs the council approximately £1 million per year, and is being reviewed in light of “significant financial pressures across all services”.

Nottinghamshire Council’s offer is only available to pupils attending a faith school on grounds of religion – no similar provision exists for families who choose a secular school because they want a nonreligious education for their children. All schools identified as being potentially affected by the review are either Church of England or Catholic in character.

Responding to the consultation, the NSS said this “asymmetrical approach” privileges Anglicans and Catholics, whilst discriminating against children from nonreligious or religious minority backgrounds.

The NSS said it was “not reasonable” and “unfair” to expect families who get no assistance with transport to their local nonreligious school to fund the transport for religious families to send their children to faith schools.

It also highlighted that pupils who attend faith schools but do not share the school’s religion are not eligible to receive free transport, which creates “different classes of pupils within faith schools”.

NSS: “Discriminatory and unfair” faith school travel policy must end

National Secular Society spokesperson Jack Rivington said: “Nottingham’s faith school transport policies privilege families based on religion, undermining equality, fairness, and ultimately social cohesion.

“Parents who choose to send their children long distances to faith schools should not be subsidised by everyone else. Faced with financial pressures and difficult choices about how to balance budgets, public money should be spent on services which are open and accessible to all, not towards benefits only available to a limited subsection of the population.”