The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 29th April 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to introduce legislation which would ban the practice of conversion therapy.
Baroness Barran (Con, Women & Equalities): The Government is taking account of the recently published final report from the independent Cass Review.
Continue reading “Bishop of Manchester asks about plans to ban conversion therapy in the UK”On 24th April 2024, the House of Lords debated the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill in Committee. The Bishop of Manchester moved his amendment 28 to the bill, and made a speech in support of the amendment, which “would provide that, where the freeholder in the case of a lease extension or freehold enfranchisement is a charity which had owned the freehold interest since before the passing of the Bill, marriage and hope value are payable.”
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, while I thoroughly enjoyed that previous group, I hope this one will not prove quite so wide-ranging. In tabling these amendments, my aim is to deal with an issue that in the charity world is specific to a small number of bodies but would severely impact the work that they do. First, I am a leaseholder myself, as it happens, as set out in the register of interests. I have been through the process of extending my lease; my flat is not in London, and it was quite a simple and cheap process. Secondly, although I am no longer on the board of governors of the Church Commissioners, it is the body that pays my stipend, owns my home and covers my working expenses, so I declare that interest too.
The commissioners are directly affected by the proposals in the Bill. They would indeed benefit from my amendments but, as has already been mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Truscott, in the previous group, that charity is large enough to withstand the adverse impact. Smaller charities would struggle much harder to maintain their work, and it is their case I seek to plead today.
Continue reading “Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill: Bishop of Manchester tables amendment on compensation for charities”On 23rd April 2024, the House of Lords debated the Victims and Prisoners Bill. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which bishops took part:
On 23rd April 2024, the House of Lords debated the Victims and Prisoners Bill. The Bishop of Manchester spoke in support for his amendments 60, 64, and 70 to be the bill, which focus on establishing support services for victims of crime:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I will speak to my Amendments 60, 64 and 70, which echo amendments on support services for victims that I tabled in Committee. I am grateful to the Minister for his responses at that stage and for his kindness in meeting me and representatives of Refuge and Women’s Aid in the interim. In light of those conversations, it is not my intention to press any of these amendments to a Division today. However, I hope that, in this debate and in the Minister’s response to it, we can clarify a little further how His Majesty’s Government will seek to ensure that victims across the country have access to quality support services provided by organisations that hold their confidence and understand their specific circumstances. As we are now on Report, I will not repeat the detailed arguments of Committee, but I think their force still stands.
Amendment 60 places a duty on the Secretary of State to define in statutory guidance
“the full breadth of specialist community-based support domestic abuse services”.
Continue reading “Victims and Prisoners Bill: Bishop of Manchester tables amendments on support services for victims of crime”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.
Continue reading “Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill: Bishop of Manchester calls for clarity on scope of bill”On 16th April 2024, the House of Lords debated the Victims and Prisoners Bill. Votes were held on amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part:
On 16th April 2024, the House of Lords debated amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill. The Bishop of Manchester spoke in support of amendments 5 and 8 to the bill pertaining to child criminal exploitation, urging that a consistent definition of this be adopted to ensure support for children affected by criminal exploitation:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I will speak very briefly to Amendments 5 and 8, to which I have added my name. One of the things that has changed hugely over my adult lifetime is an understanding of just how lifelong traumatising events that take place in childhood are. For that reason, we need to be very clear and careful when working with children.
Continue reading “Victims and Prisoners Bill: Bishop of Manchester urges greater support for victims of child criminal exploitation”On 16th April 2024, the House of Lords debated Commons reasons and amendments to the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill. Votes were held on further amendments to the bill, in which Bishops took part:
On 27th March 2024, the Bishop of Manchester spoke at the second reading of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill, welcoming the legislation whilst expressing concern over its impact on those freeholders that are charities:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I begin by declaring my interests. I am no longer a church commissioner, as my time finished at the end of last year, but I am paid and—if the Lord spares me—will be pensioned by the Church Commissioners in due course. The commissioners are freeholders, not least of the Hyde Park Estate, which has been in continuous Church ownership and care since around the 11th century, when it belonged to the monks of Westminster Abbey. I guess, if I am going to echo a word that we have used several times today, that makes it genuinely feudal. I also own one leasehold flat in the West Midlands, as set out in the Members’ register.
Continue reading “Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill: Bishop of Manchester expresses concerns over changes to charity financing”The Bishop of Manchester spoke in debate on the state of local government finances and the impact on communities on 21st March 2024, highlighting the efforts of faith groups and partnership working to combat poverty and homelessness:
The Lord Bishop of Manchester: My Lords, I too am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, for securing this important debate, but I am doubly grateful for its full title. This is not simply a debate about local government finances; it is a debate about the impact on local communities, and that is a vital distinction. Money is only ever a means to an end. It is an input—a crucial one—but what really matters are the outcomes and, in terms of local government, what really matters is how well local communities are served.
I still recall that back in the 1990s, when I started attending and speaking at national housing conferences, there were some where every positive mention of housing associations brought an audible hiss from some local authority members who were present. They saw us as rivals, and in some cases even the enemy, as we were taking money that had formerly gone to them to provide services that they had previously enjoyed delivering. I guess their attitude could be summed up as: if a job is worth doing, it is for the public sector to do it. I hope that we have long moved on from those attitudes. Local authorities have a vital and leading part to play in the service of their communities, but they are not the sole provider. Other agencies are not competitors; they are partners in the common task of supporting the local community.
Continue reading “Bishop of Manchester details benefits of partnership working during debate on local government finances”
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