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1669316

	registered interest
	date	09/11/2023
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Church of St Peter and St Paul
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, if the Church Commissioners will review the decision to demolish the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Birch, Essex.
	tabling member constituency	Witham
	tabling member printed	Priti Patel
	uin	900092
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/11/2023 answer text <p>The Church Commissioners have been closely involved with local and diocesan discussions on the future of St Peter &amp; St Paul, Birch. The Commissioners are responsible for the oversight and management of the relevant legislation and have ensured that the decision-making to allow demolition has followed due process</p><p><br>Whilst the Commissioners have no plans to review the decision, it is now for the Diocese of Chelmsford to take forward the demolition (or not as they may decide).</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 16/11/2023 16:22:47 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4066 label Biography information for Priti Patel

1185184

	registered interest
	date	16/03/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Church of England: Charitable Donations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to the declining use of cash throughout the UK, what steps the Church of England is taking to change the way it collects donations in parishes.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	29875
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2020 answer text <p>The Church recognised in 2017 the need to adapt to the major move away from cash towards contactless payments. Today a much larger, fast-evolving range of contactless solutions is available through the Church’s own Parish Buying service, with over 1,900 churches now having the means to accept payments or donations by card or mobile phone. The Church aims to have over half of its 16,000 churches able to take contactless payments and donations in the next three years. The Church of England in partnership with the Church in Wales is working through its ‘Parish Buying' programme to negotiate competitive prices for churches. More information on that can be found at the ‘Parish Buying' website: <a href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.parishbuying.org.uk%2Fcategories%2Fgiving-and-payments&amp;data=02%7C01%7Csimon.stanley%40churchofengland.org%7C463efdae0e324efdbb5d08d7cb5f674d%7C95e2463b3ab047b49ac1587c77ee84f0%7C0%7C0%7C637201482941279346&amp;sdata=XLQDDc%2FkW4gGHUCAeltyWaZywD6ipD4RV2qcPgP%2FuOE%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.parishbuying.org.uk/categories/giving-and-payments</a></p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/03/2020 17:18:50 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1185187

	registered interest
	date	16/03/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Churches: Theft
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to recent thefts of lead roofs and bells from churches in Yorkshire and Wiltshire, what steps the Church of England is taking to protect churches from thefts of lead and bells.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	29878
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2020 answer text <p>The Church of England has witnessed a steady increase in metal theft recently. Between 2018 and 2019, reports of thefts were up 25%. The rise is attributed to an increase in international metal prices. Additionally, significant thefts are being co-ordinated by organised criminals working in teams. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 had great success initially, but further work is necessary to update the law to reflect the organised nature of this crime.</p><p>Recent cases of theft have included the 291-year-old bell from Bremilham Church in Wiltshire, recognised as the smallest church in England. In North Yorkshire 60% of the lead roof was stolen from St Peter's Church, Brafferton. This church had only just completed an extensive refurbishment and has now been left with a £80,000-£100,000 repair bill. Thefts are generally moving north and west along the major transport routes and while the additional funding from the Government to assist all religious buildings increase their security is welcome, it does not address the underlying causes of this sort of organised crime.</p><p>Church buildings are a community resource and are not just used by worshipers. All Parochial Church Councils are encouraged to take all measure they feel appropriate to deter potential thieves, such as using smart water and installing roof alarms. Many churches have found that by being open more frequently and welcoming people in, rather than only opening for services, this has helped reduce the risk of thefts.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/03/2020 17:24:20 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1192320

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Churches: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, when churches will be re-opened for worshippers.
	tabling member constituency	Rother Valley
	tabling member printed	Alexander Stafford
	uin	42227
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/05/2020 answer text <p>It is essential that when church buildings reopen for public worship or private prayer by members of the public, that it is done safely. In the meantime, churches across the country are holding virtual services and offering support to the vulnerable and elderly. Where they are unable to do this locally national resources are available such as the national church service on a Sunday and the Daily Hope phone line.</p><p> </p><p>The Church is adapting and rising to the challenge of supporting their community physically and spiritually during this medical emergency. The Church is regularly reviewing the medical advice and is in regular conversation with the Government. What is needed is a wide range of detailed protocols and practices to be established to ensure that church buildings and services do not represent risks for renewed transmission of the virus.</p><p> </p><p>The Church of England is currently preparing for the reopening of church buildings, but it must be recognised that not all churches and clergy may be able to satisfy all the necessary criteria, especially in the early stages of the recovery phase. This has been the experience in other jurisdictions such as Germany where the Government has advised that churches can be reopened for public worship.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 05/05/2020 15:01:28 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4866 label Biography information for Alexander Stafford

1185186

	registered interest
	date	16/03/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Archbishop of Canterbury: Uganda
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what the outcome was of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent visit to Uganda to discuss the peace and security challenges facing the region.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	29877
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2020 answer text <p>During his recent visit to Uganda for the enthronement of the 9<sup>th</sup> Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, the Archbishop of Canterbury was invited to meet with President Museveni.</p><p>The Archbishop of Canterbury paid tribute to President Museveni for hosting large numbers of refugees from South Sudan in Uganda and discussed regional politics, peace and security. The Archbishop also discussed the intention for the global Anglican Communion to plant 100 million trees globally over the next five years as part of its contribution to environmental protection.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/03/2020 17:22:06 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1177598

	registered interest
	date	11/02/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Church of England: Carbon Emissions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what support the Church of England is receiving from (a) local authorities and (b central government to help reduce their carbon footprint.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	504
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2020 answer text <p>The National Church Institutions of the Church of England are not receiving support from central government or local authorities to help reduce their carbon footprint. While there may be instances of local parishes being given one-off small grants, records of these are not held centrally.</p><p>The Church of England's General Synod met in February 2020 to discuss reducing the carbon footprint of the Church. The Synod voted to call upon all parts of the Church of England to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. More information about the vote at the Synod can be found here: <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/general-synod-sets-2030-net-zero-carbon-target" target="_blank">https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/general-synod-sets-2030-net-zero-carbon-target</a></p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 13/02/2020 14:37:09 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1185188

	registered interest
	date	16/03/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Church of England: Personal Records
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to use new technology to make its graveyard records available.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	29879
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2020 answer text <p>The Church of England is starting to map its thousands of graveyards over the next five years, with the first trials taking place in the Huddersfield area. This will enable for the first time a comprehensive database of British burial sites.</p><p>The Church of England project hopes to immortalise the tombs of millions of people buried, as well as those interred on unconsecrated land. Maps and photographs will be uploaded alongside burial records in a searchable database</p><p>The Church is grateful to Historic England for backing the project, which it has match-funded, and hopes that this will make its 35 million burial records, and the even larger number of memorials, available to the public through an integrated searchable map.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/03/2020 17:25:23 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1185182

	registered interest
	date	16/03/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Church of England: Carbon Emissions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to use its investments to support business transitioning to a low carbon economy.
	tabling member constituency	Strangford
	tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
	uin	29873
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2020 answer text <p>As responsible investors and members of the UN-convened Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, the Church Commissioners regard climate change as a vital issue and have pledged to transition their investment to a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions portfolio by 2050. They will set their first interim emissions reduction target as members of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance in 2020 and will work with their public equities managers to achieve it.</p><p>The Church of England National Investing Bodies (NIBs), are guided by the commitments made by the NIBs in July 2018 General Synod debate on climate change and investment. Starting in 2020 the NIBs are committed to disinvest from companies that are not taking seriously their responsibilities to assist with the transition to a low carbon economy. In a new commitment, the NIBs indicated that by 2023 they would disinvest from fossil fuel companies that are not prepared to align with the goal of the Paris Agreement.</p><p>The Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) is a global initiative, co-founded by the Church of England National Investing Bodies in 2017, to assess companies' preparedness for the transition to a low carbon economy. It ended 2019 supported by investors with over $16 trillion of assets.</p><p>The Church of England Pension Board launched the FTSE TPI Climate Transition Index in January at the London Stock Exchange . The Index rewards those companies with public targets aligned to the Paris Agreement whilst significantly underweighting or excluding those that do not.</p><p>The new index embeds forward-looking climate data from TPI - namely the TPI <em>carbon performance metric that </em>assesses a company on its plans for alignment with the transition to a low carbon economy. Companies currently excluded from the index would be included if they set public emissions targets (covering all their emissions) aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement. We believe it to be the first global index of its kind that will allow passive funds to play an active role in supporting the Paris Climate Agreement.</p><p>The Church is also part of Climate Action 100+ (‘CA100+'), which is an investor initiative seeking to ensure the world's largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change, consistent with goal of the Paris Agreement to restrict warming to well below two degrees Celsius. CA100+ is supported by more than 370 investors with over $41 trillion of assets. The Commissioners were founding supporters, the Transition Pathway Initiative is one of the Climate Action100+ official data partners, and its assessments are used to benchmark companies.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/03/2020 17:14:46 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1194222

	registered interest
	date	11/05/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Churches: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is planning to take to allow it to reopen churches as soon as possible while limiting the risk of spreading covid-19.
	tabling member constituency	Romford
	tabling member printed	Andrew Rosindell
	uin	45018
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2020 answer text <p>The Church of England is committed to the reopening of buildings in a phased way, in accordance with the rules, restrictions and timetable established by Government. On 5<sup>th</sup> May the House of Bishops issued guidance, which can be seen here: <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/house-bishops-backs-phased-approach-revising-access-church-buildings" target="_blank">https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/house-bishops-backs-phased-approach-revising-access-church-buildings</a></p><p>We are working with Government and with representatives of the heritage planning sector to assess the need for building adaptations related to public safety in our cathedral and church buildings, and in particular temporary additions or changes that might need to be made to enable social distancing and proper hygiene. We are committed to enabling our churches and cathedrals to make such changes as might be needed to allow them to reopen safely.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/05/2020 16:06:28 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous previous answer version 21588 answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	1447 label Biography information for Andrew Rosindell

1186537

	registered interest
	date	19/03/2020
	answering body	Church Commissioners
	answering dept id	9
	answering dept short name	Church Commissioners
	answering dept sort name	Church Commissioners
	hansard heading	Cemeteries: Repairs and Maintenance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the right hon. Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church is taking to ensure the maintenance of its burial grounds.
	tabling member constituency	Newcastle-under-Lyme
	tabling member printed	Aaron Bell
	uin	32199
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/03/2020 answer text <p>The responsibility for maintenance of Church of England churchyards that are open for burials lies with each Parochial Church Council. However, if the churchyard has been closed for burials by order of the Privy Council or other agreement, the usual practice is for responsibility to transfer to the relevant Local Authority. Maintenance of a closed churchyard is still undertaken in line with the relevant ecclesiastical legislation, which still applies. Each diocese similarly produces its own guidance and regulations.</p><p> </p><p>Advice and guidance is always available for parishes and all local authorities from the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division of the Archbishops’ Council. The Church Buildings Division is currently developing a digital Burial Grounds Management System with external partners. This will in the next few years digitally map all graveyards and burial records to allow a publicly available and searchable records and monuments map to increase access to our churchyards. Following a successful trial in the Diocese of Leeds this project will gradually roll out to the rest of the country.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 24/03/2020 17:15:44 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
	tabling member	4837 label Biography information for Aaron Bell