The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 14th May 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to address (1) the under-representation of women in health data, and (2) the lack of female-only UK clinical trials.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about women’s health data and microplastics research”
The Bishop of St Albans spoke in a debate on a report from the Built Environment Committee: High Streets: Life Beyond Retail? in grand committee on 13th May 2025, highlighting the needs of rural communities, the importance of an imaginative approach to developing town centres, and the benefits of finding everyday use for buildings:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne, for securing this debate, for taking over as chair of the Built Environment Committee and for his excellent opening speech. I declare my interest as a vice-president of the LGA.
I saw the impact of a can-do council appointing a town centre development officer when I became archdeacon of Stoke some 30 years ago. He would not take no for an answer. When you saw him coming, you got out your tin hat and tried to hide, because he was absolutely determined to develop what became the cultural centre of Hanley. It was an extraordinary transformation. I left some 25 years ago, and I am sure that they need to continue to develop for whatever is required now, but I saw just what the impact of that kind of appointment could be. It was an impressive piece of work.
This report is timely and educational. It is so easy when talking about the decline of the high street to hark back to some golden past, because that is probably what we all remember from years ago. But we must not expect a prosperous high street in 20 years’ time to look the same as it did 20 years ago, and we must not try to revive some version of the high street as we used to know it. The day of the retail-dominated high street, as this report demonstrates, is at least partially over, with reportedly more than 13,000 high street stores having closed in 2024. We need to be creative, innovative and imaginative in our approach to the high streets of the future, as we pivot towards a greater mix of leisure activities, restaurants and public services in our high street offer.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans advocates for needs of rural communities in development planning for high streets and town centres”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 9th May 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government whether they have a tri-service policy that sets out the process to be followed in the event that a serving soldier develops a gambling addiction.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about gambling in the armed forces”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 7th May 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how much money was made from fixed-odds betting terminals located on Ministry of Defence property in (1) 2021, (2) 2022, (3) 2023, and (4) 2024; and who was the beneficiary of any such money.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about gambling in the armed forces”The Bishop of St Albans spoke in a grand committee debate on access to banking for small businesses on 1st May 2025, with a particular focus on the needs of rural businesses and communities:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, not only for securing this debate but for an interesting and informative introduction setting out a number of important matters. I declare my interests: until two weeks ago, I was president of the Rural Coalition, which is relevant to this speech; I am also a vice-president of the Local Government Association.
I will focus my remarks specifically on the challenges for small businesses in rural areas. They hold significant potential for economic growth and are critical for our economy, but they face distinct challenges around access to banking and financial services compared to urban areas. There are over 500,000 businesses registered in rural areas, and the rural economy employs around 3.8 million people, so it is important that this economy and the small businesses that make up part of it have access to the services that they need to thrive and to contribute to the Government’s growth mission.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans takes part in debate on access to banking for small businesses”
The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on the impact of inheritance tax on farmers and rural businesses on 1st May 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, there is no doubt that there is some sort of mismatch between the assurances being given and the experiences of some of our smaller farmers, who are deeply concerned at what is going on. What consideration have His Majesty’s Government given to having some sort of clawback clause? If assets were disposed of within, say, seven years after a death, that would deal with the problem of the tax loophole whereby some people are using land simply to get out of paying tax.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about impact of inheritance tax on rural businesses”The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on support and resourcing for local authority investigations of child sexual abuse on 30th April 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I support the idea of having local inquiries, but some local authorities do not wish to have an inquiry. What will His Majesty’s Government do about that? Secondly, is the Minister convinced that these local authorities, some of which are financially challenged, have the resources to undertake this important work?
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about resourcing for local authority investigations of child abuse”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 30th April 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve treatment of people with bipolar disorder.
Baroness Merron (Lab, DHSC): It is unacceptable that too many people are not receiving the mental health care they need, and we know that waits for mental health services are far too long, including for people with bipolar disorder. We are determined to change that.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about treatment of bipolar disorder”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 22nd April 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government:
The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 22nd April 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government
The Church of England in Parliament 
You must be logged in to post a comment.