Oral Answers to Questions

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 20th June 2019 Commons Chamber

The right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, was asked—

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

6. What estimate she has made of the gap between the highest-paid and lowest-paid employees of the Church Commissioners.

[The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Dame Caroline Spelman)]

The national Church institutions have a unified pay policy that operates across all the institutions. There is an eight-band pay structure that is designed to ensure that staff in posts of equal value are paid the same. If we were to exclude staff in the Church Commissioners investment division, the ratio between the highest and lowest paid would be 7.3:1.

[Diana Johnson]

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for that answer. The Archbishop of Canterbury has talked extensively about the need for economic justice, so I was shocked to read in Personnel Today that the Church Commissioners have a 23:1 pay ratio between the highest and lowest paid in the organisation. The highest paid person receives £256,000 and one staff member was given a bonus of £250,000. For charities, the ratio is 10:1 and for local government the ratio is 15:1, so what does she think about what is going on in the Church Commissioners?

[Dame Caroline Spelman]

As I explained, the ratio, if we exclude the highest paid investment division, is 7.3:1. The investment division includes asset managers, who have to manage assets of over £8 billion. They are paid at the market rate for asset management, but they are nowhere near the top of the range. External advice is taken by the Church Commissioners on what and how we should pay, but those are the going rates for top asset managers in this country, and the assets of the Church of England have to be well managed.