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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

1192321

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, for what reasons churches and other places of worship were not listed as essential services in the covid-19 lockdown guidance.
tabling member constituency	Rother Valley
tabling member printed	Alexander Stafford
uin	42228
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/05/2020 answer text <p>Following the address to the nation made by the Prime Minister on the 23<sup>rd</sup> March, the Church of England took the difficult decision that it would ask this clergy to close their parish churches to the public due to the unprecedented high risk of transmission of the covid-19 virus. While the church buildings and halls were shut, their congregations have continued, where possible, to live out their vocation and mission to serve the needs of their local communities during the lockdown period.</p><p> </p><p>The Government listed the clergy as key workers during the medical emergency, and it has enabled them to continue to meet the needs of their communities right across the country, serving as chaplains, officiating at funerals, administering last rites, operating food banks and other essential community services.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 05/05/2020 15:00:29 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	4866 label Biography information for Alexander Stafford

1186409

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	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, what steps the Church of England is taking to change the way parish donations are collected in response to reductions in the use of cash.
tabling member constituency	Wycombe
tabling member printed	Mr Steve Baker
uin	32147
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/03/2020 answer text <p>The Church recognises the need to adapt to the move away from cash towards contactless payments. A large and 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.</p><p>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%7Cf1379cd5c6d54c494ac908d7d008aec4%7C95e2463b3ab047b49ac1587c77ee84f0%7C0%7C0%7C637206608062647135&amp;sdata=GyOzM%2Ba5e6yeWdhv0BZXzE3kfgZCaKPTd%2BCpXxbaer0%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.parishbuying.org.uk/categories/giving-and-payments</a></p><p>The Church of England has also been encouraging congregations to move to electronic planed giving schemes. This is primarily to reduce administrative burdens on volunteers, but at a time when churches have closed for public health reasons, electronic planned giving ensures continuity of a regular income.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 24/03/2020 17:20:37 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	4064 label Biography information for Mr Steve Baker

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

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

1185183

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, how the Church of England plans to deliver on the General Synod's decision to make the Church carbon zero by 2030.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	29874
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2020 answer text <p>The Church of England is committed to reducing its own carbon footprint and is developing several strategies to deliver this, including across its 44,000 properties and schools.</p><p>The General Synod at its meeting in February 2020 committed the Church to report back in three years time on whether it could meet the ambitious target set by the Synod of decarbonising the Church by 2030.</p><p>One of the first steps has already started and many listed buildings have started exploring installing new renewable technology to improve their energy use. A good example is Gloucester Cathedral, a grade 1 listed building, which has managed to install solar panels on its roof.</p><p>The Church is working with A Rocha to recognise achievement by church buildings and dioceses with Eco-Church awards at either bronze, silver or gold standard.</p><p>A new initiative the Church has developed is an energy rating tool for church buildings, which calculates the energy consumption of the parish church. It takes into account factors including the type of power the parish uses, whether they are on 'green' tariffs, the size of the building and usage.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/03/2020 17:17:41 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

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

1185185

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: South Sudan
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 progress is being made on the Archbishop’s plans to make a joint visit to South Sudan with His Holiness the Pope.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	29876
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/03/2020 answer text <p>The Archbishop of Canterbury remains committed to making a visit to South Sudan following the formation of the Transitional Government. Discussions are underway to assess opportunities for a joint visit together with His Holiness the Pope and a senior representative of the Church of Scotland.</p><p>Peace and security in South Sudan are of vital importance, and the Archbishop has been meeting with key regional figures such as President Museveni of Uganda and Special Envoy Kalonzo of Kenya to discuss this.</p><p>The Archbishop keeps in regular contact with Archbishop Justin Badi and the South Sudan Council of Churches leaders to discuss their priorities for the local church and how they can be best supported.</p> answering member constituency South West Bedfordshire answering member printed Andrew Selous question first answered 18/03/2020 17:20:34 answering member 1453 label Biography information for Andrew Selous
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

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

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