The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 11th December 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the preservation of historic places of worship if the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme is not extended after March 2025.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme”The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on initiatives to tackle rural crime on 10th December 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I congratulate His Majesty’s Government on the laudable aim of increasing the number of police and others in front-line services. As I travel around Beds and Herts, I hear that there are plans for cuts in policing. This is at a time when in rural areas there is a fear of rural crime, which I do not think will be addressed by what will predominantly be allocation in urban areas. It is very real; there is a lot of fear and huge costs, particularly to our farming community. What can His Majesty’s Government do to build on the success of initiatives such as Operation Ragwort, which worked across counties? It made a significant improvement without huge additional cost.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about tackling rural crime”On 5th December 2024, the Bishop of St Albans also spoke in a debate on housing, emphasising the effects of the housing crisis on rural areas:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe, for securing this important debate. I declare my interests as president of the Rural Coalition and vice-president of the LGA. I offer my thanks to the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury for his valedictory speech. During his tenure, he has been a champion of housing, and we have already referred to the Coming Home report, which is pertinent both to today’s debate and to His Majesty’s Government, with their very good and ambitious targets to build more housing. I hope we can assist the Government in achieving that.
Homelessness and rough sleeping are on the rise. Government statutory homelessness figures, released last week, reveal that 159,380 children are now homeless and living in temporary accommodation, a 15% increase in a year and the highest figure since records began in 2004. More particularly, the November 2023 CPRE report on the state of rural housing showed that rural homelessness has increased by 20% since 2021 and 40% since 2018-19.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans speaks in debate on housing, highlighting the needs of rural communities”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 3rd December 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the current remote gaming duty levels on economic growth.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about gambling taxation”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 2nd December 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the calls in The Lancet Public Health Commission on gambling, published on 24 October, for stronger policy and regulatory controls for gambling.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about gambling regulation”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 2nd December 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of introducing an arts premium to allow for schools to pay for arts opportunities such as music lessons, as recommended in the report by the Sutton Trust, A class Act: Social mobility and the creative industries, published on 13 November.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about arts provision”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 28th November 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how much of their recently announced £10.3 million of additional funding to Bangladesh is dedicated to supporting Rohingya refugees.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about support for Rohingya refugees”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 28th November 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure better co-ordination of guidance given to medical practitioners, teachers, and faith leaders on reporting and protecting girls from female genital mutilation.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about issues affecting women and girls”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 27th November 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to increase prosecution rates against those who have committed offences relating to female genital mutilation.
Lord Hermer (Lab, Attorney General): This Government has committed to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade and addressing female genital mutilation (FGM) is critical to achieving this.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about prosecutions for female genital mutilation”The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on the impact of flooding on farming communities on 26th November 2025, following a government statement on the aftermath of Storm Bert:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I ask the Minister to return to our farming communities. We know that this is a complex problem and we rely on our farmers to work very collaboratively with all sorts of agencies to try to prevent the water coming down into vulnerable areas. As we have noted in the last few days, our farming community is already quite vulnerable and feeling very nervous, particularly because there are some reports that the Countryside Stewardship higher-tier scheme may not open until mid-2025. It is another thing that may affect some of our farmers. Will the Minister commit to ensuring that her department does everything it can to bring the application dates of the Countryside Stewardship higher-tier fund forward as much as possible, to help our farmers?
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about impact of flooding on farming communities”
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