Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what proportion of funds allocated to projects by the Strategic Investment Board have been assigned to supporting (a) new and (b) established churches which (i) belong to and (ii) are associated with the Church Revitalisation Trust since 2020.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Strategic Development Funding (which ran from 2014-22) was awarded to dioceses. It is for dioceses to decide which churches, activities and networks they support, in line with their strategies. We do not routinely capture data on the proportion of funding directed to particular networks. Most projects work with a number of different parishes and Fresh Expressions of Church (e.g. across a town).
Out of a total of £285m of national Church funding awarded between 2020 and 2023 by the Strategic Investment Board or by its successor, the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, we estimate that £13m (4%) of funding has been awarded to dioceses for projects where all churches worked with the Church Revitalisation Trust (now known as The Revitalise Trust) and £34m (12%) has been allocated to programmes where at least one church out of many include a Church Revitalisation Trust element.
This funding comprises support both for new and established churches.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what processes there are for complaints against senior staff of the National Church Institutions.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The National Church Institutions have an external NCIs Complaints Policy, which can be found on the Church of England website at: National Church Institutions | The Church of England. A complaint is defined as any expression of dissatisfaction with the service offered by the NCIs to an individual or organisation, which could include an issue with the standard of service, a specific action taken (or not taken) or the behaviour of individuals working within or on behalf of the NCIs, in their interactions with the complainant. This could include the behaviour of NCI senior staff.
Complaints may come from any individual, volunteer or organisation directly involved with a specific matter being handled by the NCIs, including the general public, members of the clergy and staff in a church body.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to paragraphs 577 to 579 of the Review of the Independent Safeguarding Board, dated 30 November 2023, whether the commissioners have had recent discussions with the Archbishops' Council on the potential for lessons to be learned from the handling of the announcement.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Church Commissioners have not held such discussions with the Archbishops’ Council.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the terms of reference for the Defending Democracy Taskforce, how many times the Minister for Security has met the engagement forum for elected representatives.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
There is no single engagement forum for the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which uses a number of channels for engaging elected representatives. As Taskforce Chair I jointly ran, with the Speakers of both Houses, roundtable events for representatives of the main parties in Summer 2023. Follow up roundtables are currently being planned, these take place alongside direct engagement with individual Parliamentarians on specific issues and engagement with local and devolved governments officials.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the commissioners have had discussions with the Archbishops' Council on the potential impact of recommendations from case reviews commissioned by the interim commissioner of independent reviews on earlier cases.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Archbishops' Council commissioned the Interim Commissioner of Independent Reviews to undertake discussions with survivors who had been promised reviews by the former Independent Safeguarding Board, about the terms of reference for reviewing their cases. At the request of survivors, the number in discussion with the Interim Commissioner will be kept confidential, given that the number of survivors promised a review by the ISB is relatively small and there is a possibility of identifying individuals.
At present no reviews have been commissioned, though some are in the final stages of consideration. The timetable will depend on the terms of reference and agreements with individual survivors, and the Interim Commissioner is taking care to ensure that each review is adequate to the particular circumstances of the case.
The recent review into the events leading to the termination of contracts of the members of the Independent Safeguarding Board – the Wilkinson Report – identified lessons learned on how recommendations from all case reviews are taken forward, which will be discussed at the forthcoming February meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the commissioners have had recent discussions with (a) the Archbishops' Council and (b) other stakeholders on the commissioning of case reviews that the Independent Safeguarding Board agreed to undertake; what the timescale is for case reviews commissioned by the interim commissioner of independent reviews; and what steps are being taken to ensure the adequacy of such reviews.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Archbishops' Council commissioned the Interim Commissioner of Independent Reviews to undertake discussions with survivors who had been promised reviews by the former Independent Safeguarding Board, about the terms of reference for reviewing their cases. At the request of survivors, the number in discussion with the Interim Commissioner will be kept confidential, given that the number of survivors promised a review by the ISB is relatively small and there is a possibility of identifying individuals.
At present no reviews have been commissioned, though some are in the final stages of consideration. The timetable will depend on the terms of reference and agreements with individual survivors, and the Interim Commissioner is taking care to ensure that each review is adequate to the particular circumstances of the case.
The recent review into the events leading to the termination of contracts of the members of the Independent Safeguarding Board – the Wilkinson Report – identified lessons learned on how recommendations from all case reviews are taken forward, which will be discussed at the forthcoming February meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, how many and what proportion of the case reviews that the Independent Safeguarding Board agreed to undertake have been commissioned by the interim commissioner of independent reviews.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Archbishops' Council commissioned the Interim Commissioner of Independent Reviews to undertake discussions with survivors who had been promised reviews by the former Independent Safeguarding Board, about the terms of reference for reviewing their cases. At the request of survivors, the number in discussion with the Interim Commissioner will be kept confidential, given that the number of survivors promised a review by the ISB is relatively small and there is a possibility of identifying individuals.
At present no reviews have been commissioned, though some are in the final stages of consideration. The timetable will depend on the terms of reference and agreements with individual survivors, and the Interim Commissioner is taking care to ensure that each review is adequate to the particular circumstances of the case.
The recent review into the events leading to the termination of contracts of the members of the Independent Safeguarding Board – the Wilkinson Report – identified lessons learned on how recommendations from all case reviews are taken forward, which will be discussed at the forthcoming February meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what data the commissioners hold on the number of serious incident reports that have been reported to the Charity Commission by the Church of England in the last 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Each of the National Church Institutions, dioceses, and parochial church councils is a legally separate and independent charitable body, and each body is responsible for making its own serious incident reports to the Charity Commission. There is no central list.
The Church Commissioners do not hold information about the number of serious incident reports made to the Charity Commission other than their own. The Church Commissioners made two serious incident reports in the last 12 months; neither report related to safeguarding.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the Church has published guidance on the procedure for investigating serious incidents it has reported to the Charity Commission.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The National Church Institutions follow the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on registering a serious incident report.
Reporting guidance for any charity, trustee, employee, and volunteer who has concerns about the operation of any charity can be found on the Gov.uk website here: https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with which civil society organisations the Defending Democracy Taskforce has held recent discussions.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Defending Democracy Taskforce is an enduring government function which seeks to protect the democratic integrity of the UK by reducing the threat of foreign interference.
Meetings of the Taskforce are complemented by private engagement with partners outside central government and Parliament, including civil society, on subjects relevant to the work of the Taskforce. There are no current plans to publish information relating to the stakeholder engagement conducted by the Taskforce.