Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question
To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, how many churches were deconsecrated in each year since 1994.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Church of England law around church buildings is complex, but there are two main types; a consecrated church building where the bishop has performed a rite of consecration, setting the church building (and font and altar) aside for public worship, and a place of worship that has been licensed for that purpose by the bishop (not consecrated).
The Church of England does not have a rite of "deconsecration" as such – it is more usual to refer to the 'closure' of a church that is consecrated. The process of closure is a legal one, set out in the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011 and its predecessor legislation. The bishop's consecration of a church building for worship cannot be removed. However, the legal effects of consecration can be withdrawn in order to allow the disposal of the building and a new use to be found for the building.
Since 1994 there have been around 650 closure schemes for consecrated church buildings brought forward under the Mission and Pastoral Measure. In some of those cases, the closed church building will have been sold to other Christian denominations for worship use, and in some cases some occasional worship continues, even if the closed church building is being used for community activities, for example.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of her Department's drug strategy on the number of people who are in (a) drug and (b) alcohol treatment.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
By January 2024 there were an additional 9,907 adults in treatment for drugs and 9,908 adults in treatment of alcohol problems, when compared to the start of the drugs strategy in March 2022. Additionally, over the same period, there were an extra 2,650 children and young people receiving specialist support for drug and alcohol problems.
The number of prison leavers referred to community-based drug and alcohol services engaging in treatment within three weeks of release has risen to a high of 52% in January 2024, up from 36% in March 2022. Additionally, in 2023/24 we engaged over 10,000 people who sleep rough, or who are at risk of sleeping rough, in support for rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment teams, with over 9,000 people supported by these specialist teams while in treatment.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applications for citizenship were refused in each year since 1994.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Historical data relating to those who applied to naturalise/registration can be found here:
These summary tables report those who were naturalised, registered, or refused on tab Cit_02 since 1987.