How we grade parliamentary candidates – Green, Red and Grey

We have over 2,000 candidates in 650 constituencies listed on the Westminster 2010 Candidates’ Page where you can search on candidate name or constituency and also generate lists of green, red and grey candidates

We make our assessments on the basis of past voting records on conscience issues, public statements and email responses

In short Green is Good; Red is not Good;
Grey is uncertain/unknown

More specifically we award one of the following five status codes to each candidate – all of which are logged on the website.

Green Tick – ‘has made the pledge’
These candidates have written to us (or a member of their constituency) and have specifically made the pledge to 'respect, uphold and protect the right of Christians to hold and express Christian beliefs and act according to Christian conscience'. We generally give candidates the benefit of any doubt in awarding a green tick unless we have past voting records, public statements or other statements in their emails which suggest otherwise.

Green Question Mark – ‘past record suggests supportive’
This group includes the following:
•MPs with good past parliamentary voting records on Christian conscience issues who we have not yet heard from
•Candidates who have written (to us or to constituents) who have not made the pledge in as many words but have in their emails otherwise indicated a commitment to respect the right to exercise Christian conscience
•Members of Christian parliamentary groups
•Candidates who make the pledge, with some amendments, but whose emails otherwise are supportive
•Candidates who have not written to us but who have made supportive public statements at hustings or to constituents
•Candidates who have sent us ‘cut and paste’ letters which although not making the pledge are otherwise generally supportive

Grey Question Mark – ‘Position unclear or unknown’
This group includes:
•MPs with ambiguous past voting records on Christian conscience issues regardless of whether or not they have made the pledge
•Candidates who have written us emails that leave their real position still in doubt
•Candidates about whom we still have no insufficient information to make any judgement

Red Question Mark – ‘past record suggests unsupportive’
This group includes:
•MPs with poor past parliamentary voting records on Christian conscience issues regardless of whether or not they have made the pledge
•Candidates who have written us emails that suggest they are not supportive
•Candidates who have not written to us but who have made unsupportive public statements at hustings or to constituents

Red Cross – ‘will not make pledge’
This group includes:
•MPs with poor past parliamentary voting records on Christian conscience issues who have written to us and have not made the pledge
•Candidates and MPs who have specifically refused to make the pledge
•Candidates who have written us (or constituents) in response to a direct request to make the pledge emails suggesting they are not supportive

In coming to our final assessment we will often have several email exchanges with a specific candidate and we are grateful for those who have taken the time to write to us with their views whether they support us or not