On 29th April 2025, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Marsha De Cordova MP, gave the following written answers to questions from MPs:
Christianity: Religious Practice
Neil O’Brien (Con, Harborough, Oadby and Wigston): To ask the Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, how many confirmations there were in each year since 1994.
Continue reading “Church Commissioners Written Questions: Religious Practice, Bishop of Winchester”
The Bishop of Sheffield spoke in a debate on the Hereditary Peers Bill on 12th March 2025, opposing amendments that would reduce the number of Lords Spiritual in the House Lords:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield: My Lords, I am sorry to disappoint the noble Lord, Lord Moore, in the fact that the Bench of Bishops is briefly going to speak up on its own behalf. He may be surprised, as may many noble Lords opposite, that in the first eight months of the current Parliament the Bishops have voted 29 times, and only five times with the Labour Government. The Bishops are not party political; we really do seek to improve and scrutinise legislation. That is by the way.
I am grateful for the opportunity offered by this range of amendments to address some of the concerns expressed by Members of this Committee about the place and role of those of us who serve on these Benches. Although we are not whipped and do not have a party line, the Lords spiritual are pretty much all of one mind that your Lordships’ House would benefit from some reform, not least to do with numbers and patronage. As noble Lords would expect, we believe that a reformed House of Lords should include Lords spiritual and should continue to reflect the present constitutional arrangement.
Continue reading “Hereditary Peers Bill: Bishop of Sheffield outlines opposition to amendments reducing number of Lords Spiritual”
On 22nd October 2024, the Bishop of Leeds spoke at the third reading of the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill, thanking the Government and the House for their support:
The Lord Bishop of Leeds: My Lords, I think it is down to me to thank the Government. All the other Bishops are at a House of Bishops residential elsewhere. I thank the Government for taking this on and thank those who contributed to the debate at different stages. This is a mechanism to allow us to make the progress which we need to make more quickly. I am grateful to the Government and the House for their support.
Continue reading “Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill: Bishop of Leeds thanks Government and the House for support”
The Bishop of St Albans spoke at the second reading of the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill, explaining the background of the legislation and the purpose of the extension:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for her opening remarks. I put on record my personal thanks and those of the Church to His Majesty’s Government for securing time to bring this Bill forward, and to the Opposition for giving their support to the proposal. I hope that this will be a relatively simple and straightforward piece of business and that we may not need to detain the House for too long.
The Bill, if passed, will extend the Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015, due to come to an end in 2025, for a further five years to 2030. In our view, this is a reasonable extension to a successful piece of legislation. Prior to the 2015 Act, the 26 bishops who sat in this House were determined by the Bishoprics Act 1878: the most reverend Primates the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the right reverend Prelates the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester, followed by the 21 longest-serving diocesan bishops in the Church of England.
Continue reading “Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Bill: Bishop of St Albans introduces legislation”On 6th July 2023, a debate was held in the House of Commons on the motion That this House has considered the matter of bishops in the House of Lords, organised by the All-Party-Parliamentary Humanist Group. Andrew Selous MP, the second Church Estates Commissioner, spoke in the debate:
Tommy Shepherd MSP (SNP, Edinburgh East): I beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of bishops in the House of Lords.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Davies. Some people, perhaps including members of my party, might wonder why a member of the SNP has secured a debate on the House of Lords, so I want to make it clear from the outset that my principal role here today is as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary humanist group, which comprises more than 150 Members of both Houses and has representatives from all the main political parties. I moved the motion in that capacity.
Aaron Bell MP (Con, Newcastle-under-Lyme): As secretary of the same group, I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this debate, which is not only overdue, but timely: as he knows, yesterday in the Lords, there were amendments to the Government’s legislation. I suspect he agrees with the principle of those amendments—he and I differ on that—and he probably agrees with me that the archbishop who tabled them is a very distinguished Member of that House, but does he share my sense of unease about somebody who has not been elected or appointed, and who is merely in the Lords in his capacity as a bishop, potentially changing the law of this country?
Continue reading “House of Commons Debate: Bishops in the House of Lords”On 16th September 2021, Andrew Selous MP, representing the Church Commissioners, gave the following written answers to questions from MPs:
Dr Matthew Offord MP (Con, Hendon): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, if the Commissioners will make representations to Church leaders on allowing people to marry in any church of their choosing.
Continue reading “Church Commissioners Written Questions: Marriage, Appointment of Bishops”On 24th February 2021, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Andrew Selous MP, gave the following written answer to a question to an MP:
Neil Coyle MP (Lab, Bermondsey and Old Southwark): To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, what the composition of the (a) Gibbs and (b) Whitsey reviews are; and if he will place non-redacted copies of the reports in the Library.
Continue reading “Church Commissioners Written Questions: Bishops – Offences Against Children”
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