On 22nd April 2021, Andrew Selous MP, representing the Church Commissioners, gave the following written answers to questions from MPs:
Luke Pollard MP (Lab, Plymouth, Sutton & Devonport): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of suspending licences for trail hunting on land owned by the Church; and if he will make a statement.
Andrew Selous MP (Con, South West Bedfordshire): In 2020 the Church Commissioners reviewed their policy on trail hunting and suspended any directly issued licences which previously permitted trail hunting. Where trail hunting continues to take place across Commissioners’ tenanted land (and which is beyond our direct control owing to the tenant’s security of tenure) we are seeking to assist farm tenants with the regularisation of any informal trail hunting arrangements.
Jim Shannon MP (DUP, Strangford): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what the average length of term agreed on farm business tenancies let by the Church Commissioners, other than in cases where a tenancy is replacing a previous tenancy let under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986, was in each of the last five years to 2020.
Andrew Selous MP: In the last five years, ending with 2020, the average length of the term granted for new farm business tenancies over 50 acres across the Commissioners’ rural portfolio was:
| 2016 | 4.1 |
| 2017 | 4.9 |
| 2018 | 3.6 |
| 2019 | 3.5 |
| 2020 | 2.3 |
Such averages do not reflect the size of the holdings which were let during this period or the circumstances and rationale for each new farm letting.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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