Tag: Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill 2024

Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill: Bishop of Manchester calls for clarity on scope of bill

On 17th April 2024, the House of Lords debated the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill in committee. The Bishop of Manchester spoke in support of amendment 54 to the bill, calling for the government to provide clarity over the scope of the bill in relation to charities and educational institutions:

The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I shall speak in favour of Amendment 54, to which I have added my name. I also support the other amendments in this group. I listened carefully to the previous debate. As other noble Lords have noted, there is a strong overlap between this and the previous group.

Again as others have said, my concern is that, before we pass this Bill, we get clarity on who it covers. I declare a particular interest in that those of us on these Benches, along with other diocesan bishops of the Church of England, do carry out public functions. From time to time, these might bring an individual, in our corporate capacity as bishop of a diocese, within whatever definition of a public body or authority we might eventually land on.

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Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill: Bishop of Southwark expresses concerns over implications of legislation

On 20th February 2024, the Bishop of Southwark made a speech during the second reading of the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill, raising the potential issue of religious education foundations being affected inadvertently by the bill, and expressing concern about the far-reaching implications of the bill:

The Lord Bishop of Southwark: My Lords, I expect that the name of Field-Marshal Julius Jakob Freiherr von Haynau does not elicit the sort of interest that once it did in your Lordships’ House. He was, none the less, a staple of O-level history when that subject would have elicited the admiration of the Secretary of State for Levelling Up. Field Marshall von Haynau was an effective but severe Habsburg military commander during the revolutionary years of 1848 and 1849. His imperial standing, however, did not prevent him being chased down Borough High Street in my diocese in 1850—where my diocesan headquarters now is, very near the cathedral—by two draymen from the nearby brewery of Barclay Perkins to remonstrate with him about his military conduct in Italy and Hungary.

I mention this once-famous incident to illustrate that there have always been strong currents of feelings about issues, including those abroad. Some of these fall into what one might call the dissenting tradition. As a Church of England Bishop, I recognise that I am an heir to a different tradition, but surely our history has taught us that consensus has been built up around what is obviously true and lived out with integrity, rather than by suppression.

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