On 12th April 2024, Andrew Selous MP, representing the Church Commissioners, gave the following written answers to questions from MPs:
Church Schools: Hendon
Dr Matthew Offord MP (Con, Hendon): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether he has made an assessment of the contribution of church schools in Hendon constituency.
Andrew Selous MP (Con, South West Bedfordshire): Though the National Church Institutions are not responsible for the operation of individual schools, the Diocese of London has volunteered the following information, which I hope is useful.
There are two Church of England schools in the Hendon Constituency.
St Mary’s and St John’s educates more than 1,600 pupils. One quarter are on free school meals, which is higher than the Local Authority average. Pupils are making above-average progress at an 8-level attainment of 0.39 compared with the national average of -0.03.
St Paul’s School Mill Hill educates 210 pupils. One fifth of pupils are in receipt of Free School Meals, in line with the Local Authority average. Pupils attainment is above-average; 84% attained the expected standard in Reading, Writing and Maths last summer compared to the national average of 60%.
I commend the teachers and leadership teams in both schools for these achievements.
The Church of England educates over one million children in its 4,700 schools across England. Church Schools are committed to the flourishing of children and deliver a rounded education that remains in high demand with parents. They serve all those in the community, whatever their faith or belief.
Church of England: Carbon Emissions
Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church is taking to help achieve net zero.
Andrew Selous: The Church Commissioners are committed to reducing the carbon intensity of their portfolio by 2025 and, as a member of the Asset Owners Alliance, reaching ‘Net Zero’ in the investment portfolio by 2050.
The General Synod has set a target for the Church of England to become Net Zero by 2030. The National Church Institutions are supporting every diocese with a grant to grow capacity and employ staff to manage the work of achieving this net zero ambition. The Church Commissioners have committed funding of £30m for 2023-25 and £190m total for a 9-year programme from 2023-31.
Stage one will explore the best ways to decarbonise the diverse range of buildings and navigate planning and governance structures. The project will assess cathedrals and clergy housing, with demonstration churches that can act as showpieces of what is possible. There will be a special grant available from dioceses to enable churches to fund improvements to their energy efficiency.
A second workstream supports schools in accessing public sector decarbonisation funds, and another stream of grants will match local fundraising in churches for net-zero carbon projects through the Buildings for Mission scheme
This will provide a clear picture of the kinds of projects that are effective in reducing emissions, ready for a scaled-up investment in the second 3-year period
Recent success stories include York Minster and the Chapel at Kings College, Cambridge, which have joined many other major churches and cathedrals across the country in installing new solar panels and renewable technologies, reducing their running costs and making them more sustainable buildings.
Church of England: Land Use
Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether a recent assessment has been made of the environmental improvements being advanced through the church’s holding of agricultural land.
Andrew Selous: The Church Commissioners undertake rolling assessments of environmental improvements being made to the farmland portfolio by tenants, which is used to update the baseline study undertaken five years ago. Data has so far been provided on over 25,000 acres of Commissioners’ land holdings and contains details of environmental changes, such as transitioning to regenerative agricultural practices. The Commissioners are pleased to announce a partnership with the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), which will further develop this work.
The Church Commissioners’ rural estates team continues to engage with our new and existing agricultural tenants through regular individual farm visits, the sharing of ground-sourced data, including carbon audits, and the gathering of information from third parties. On recent assessment revealed that on a single Commissioners’ farm in Kent, over 45 species of bird were recorded during a single visit in December 2023.
Christianity: Ceremonies
Neil O’Brien MP (Con, Harborough): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, how many confirmations there were in each year since 1994.
Andrew Selous: The table below [on Hansard] shows the number of confirmations conducted in the Church of England each year since 1994.
As the Established Church, every member of the public, whatever their belief, living within a parish in England has the right to access baptism, marriage and burial services of the Church of England as long as performing that service is lawful under Canon Law.
The detailed data on the number of baptism and confirmation services is published in the annual data ‘Statistics for Mission’.
Post 2009 figures can be found here: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2023-11/statisticsformission2022_tables.xlsx (opens in a new tab)
Pre-2009 figures can be found here: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/data-services/resources-publications-and-data#na
Church Services: Attendance
Neil O’Brien: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what average weekly attendance was in each year since 1994.
Andrew Selous: The National Church Institutions first started collecting attendance data centrally in the autumn of 2000; as a result, it is not possible to publish data for the period 1994-1999. A methodological change also took place between 2000 and 2003 which means statistics for those years are not directly comparable with the data now collected. The data displayed below [on Hansard] shows the longest period of comparable figures available, from 2003-2022.
Attendance figures are collected from churches for the first 4 Sundays of October and in the following Monday-Saturday midweek periods – this exercise is referred to as the “October count”. Figures include attendance at baptisms, as these usually take place in service, but not attendance at weddings and funerals. Attendance at services for schools is NOT included in the average weekly and average Sunday attendance figures but is reported separately.
In 2013, the question was changed to specifically ask about attendance at school services. Prior to 2013, it was apparent that some churches included such attendance in their reported figures while others did not. The change in question during this year resulted in a large change in the average weekly attendance from 2012 to 2013 and a more consistent practice across the church as a whole.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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