The Bishop of Sheffield raised a question regarding evidence presented by the Bishop of Chelmsford at the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2024, during a discussion on religious conversion as a basis for asylum claims on 13th October 2025:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield: My Lords, I declare an interest as patron of the ASSIST charity in Sheffield, which seeks to support refugees and asylum seekers. Is the Minister aware that the evidence provided by the former Anglican cleric just referenced was refuted by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford in extensive oral evidence on the subject at a Home Affairs Select Committee meeting in the other place last year?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab, Home Office): As it happens, my right honourable friend Dame Diana Johnson chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee then. She then became a Home Office Minister and is fully aware of the ongoing discussions. We will continue to discuss with any Church leader the basis for individuals claiming conversion as part of the process of asylum, but I reiterate to the House that claiming conversion or Christianity does not mean that the individual is accepted. That is subject to a rigorous test by officials in the Home Office.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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