An independent Appeal Panel established by the Constitution Committee of the Board of Deputies has considered an appeal on the process that led to sanctions being imposed on a number of its Deputies. The sanctions related to breaches of the Board’s Code of Conduct following a letter published in relation to the Middle East conflict.
The Appeals Panel has found that there was an inadvertent error in the initial investigation process. This related to the letter signatories not receiving the full suite of the materials the Panel had gathered to use in its deliberations. The items missed included an impact statement submitted by the Board of Deputies and several of the original complaints.
The impact statement conveys the Board’s assessment of the damaging impact the letter signatories’ actions had on the Board’s reputation, on the UK Jewish community, and on the Board’s lay leaders and professional team.
The Appeals Panel has decided to redress this by providing the appellants with this information and giving them a further 14 days to set out their response. The Appeals Panel will then review this material and decide whether to uphold or amend the decisions of the original independent Panel and sanctions imposed by the Board’s Executive Committee. While responses are reviewed by the Appeals Panel over the coming weeks, the various decisions in relation to the signatories remain in place.
Commenting on the process, a spokesperson for the Board of Deputies said:
“As a democratic and rules-bound organisation we are committed to upholding our Code of Conduct and ensuring the correct procedures are followed in response to any complaint. In this case the Appeal Panel has identified an error in the process which needs to be corrected. The Code of Conduct is there to protect the integrity of the Board and all its diverse stakeholders, whilst enshrining the principles of debate, diversity and free speech. We are confident that the process set out by the Appeal Panel will enable the Board to swiftly draw this process to a conclusion.”
NOTES
On 24 June 2025, the Executive of the Board of Deputies reached conclusions in relation to complaints made against a number of its Deputies. You can read the press release relating to those decisions here.