Daniel Morgan Independent Panel Report

Lord Balfe Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

The panel is clear that it did not find any evidence that freemasonry had any effect on the investigations. The Code of Ethics, published by the College of Policing, makes it clear that the police must remain impartial and that membership of groups or societies must not cause a conflict of interest or impact an officer’s duty to discharge their duties effectively.

[Lord Balfe (Con)]

My Lords, at Chapter 10, Paragraph 470, there is a quote that

“‘the corruption of freemasonry influenced every attempt at seeking the truth in the initial Morgan criminal investigation and subsequent enquiries’.”

Later, there are some figures on the voluntary database, where 96% of judges, 88% of magistrates, but

“only 37% of police … declared whether or not they were Freemasons”.

The recommendation actually says:

“All police officers and police staff should be obliged to register in confidence”.


They are not asked, but are obliged to do so. Later on, it says:

“The ‘rotten apple approach’ to dealing with corruption does not meet the needs of a police service seeking to minimise, and even prevent corruption”.


Is it not time at least to accept the recommendation that police officers should be obliged to register whether they are Freemasons?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I thank my noble friend. As I said to the noble Baroness, Lady Ludford, on the definition of freemasonry, the Code of Ethics published by the College of Policing makes it clear that the police must remain impartial and that membership of groups or societies must not cause a conflict of interest or impact an officer’s ability to discharge their duties effectively. As I said earlier, the panel is clear that it found no evidence that freemasonry had any effect on the investigations.