ABSTRACT
The Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life (CORB) was a non-statutory commission that undertook its work between November 2013 and June 2015. CORB is a civil society initiative that was funded by the Woolf Institute, University of Cambridge, the Open Society Institute, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the David Foundation and the Dominion Trust. The CORB was established to address how to re-imagine religion and belief in public life rather than issues of migration or minorities. While CORB was a non-statutory commission, it included many of the features that are typical of UK tradition of Royal Commissions. CORB had a complex structure that ensured that there was a mix of technical expertise of academics and professionals as well as a diversity of religious and gender perspectives. The Church of England criticised the CORB report, especially in relation to its recommendation that faith schools should take measures to reduce selection of pupils and staff on grounds of religion.
