Memorandum from the Church Commissioners
for England (DCH 114)
1. This evidence is submitted by the Church
Commissioners for England ("the Commissioners"), constituted
under the Church Commissioners Measure 1947 as statutory successors
to Queen Anne's Bounty (incorporated by Royal Charter in 1704)
and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (established by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners Act 1836). Six Officers of State[29]
are ex officio Church Commissioners, and the Second Church
Estates Commissioner, a Member of Parliament (by tradition a member
of the party in Government), answers questions in the House of
Commons on the Commissioners' behalf. The Commissioners' annual
report and accounts are required by law[30]
to be laid before both Houses of Parliament by the Lord Chancellor.
The Commissioners also lay their report and accounts before the
General Synod of the Church of England, and their representatives
answer questions at each set of sessions of General Synod.
2. The Commissioners are a charity for the
advancement of religion through the provision of financial support
for the Church of England's ministry. Their principal responsibility
is to manage the assets entrusted to them in order to:
— provide pensions for retired clergy
in relation to service before 1998;
— make "additional provision for
the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required";
— provide the stipends and housing
for, and pay the working costs of, bishops; and
— give some financial support to cathedrals.
They also administer the legal framework for
pastoral reorganisation and settle the future of church buildings
that are no longer pastorally required.
3. The Commissioners manage nearly £4
billion (principally invested in securities and land). Their income
is applied to the purposes listed in the preceding paragraph,
partly through the Archbishops' Council under processes laid down
in the National Institutions Measure 1998 and partly directly.
In addition, the Pensions Measure 1997 (as amended by the Church
of England (Pensions) Measure 2003) gives them a time-limited
power to apply capital to the payment of the clergy pensions for
which they are responsible.
4. The Commissioners and any institution
administered by them are named as an exempt charity in paragraph
(x) of Schedule 2 to the Charities Act 1993. This replaced a similar
provision in the Charities Act 1960.
5. In line with the recommendations of the
Strategy Unit's 2002 consultation paper "Private Action,
Public Benefit", the draft Charities Bill currently before
the Joint Committee provides (at clause 9) for the removal of
the Commissioners' exempt status, no main regulator having been
found for them.
6. The Commissioners believe in good governance
but consider that the proposed new regulatory system will add
little benefit to their current governance arrangements. It will
involve extra costs, taking money away from their charitable purposes.
In addition, they have two specific concerns about the proposal
to remove their exempt status. These are that:
— while a non-charity with responsibility
for the provision of pensions would be regulated in a different
way, the Commissioners are concerned to ensure that a regulated
charity whose objects include the provision of pensions would
fall wholly within the scope of regulation by the Charity Commission.
If regulation meant that the Church Commissioners were required
to divide their fund into parts that were separately regulated,
it would considerably reduce the amounts of money available for
application to their purposes.
— The Commissioners are also concerned
that the proposal for regulation of the Commissioners by the Charity
Commission should not undermine the Church of England's status
as the Established Church in England. Arising out of this general
concern was a particular one to safeguard the statutory responsibility
of their Audit Committee to report to those Officers of State
who are ex officio Church Commissioners on any matter which
causes the Committee grave concern that the Commissioners' Board
of Governors has been unable to satisfy.[31]
7. In January 2004, before publication of
the draft Charities Bill, the Second Church Estates Commissioner,
Sir Stuart Bell MP, met with Ms Fiona Mactaggart MP, the Home
Office Minister, who, on behalf of Government, gave the Second
Church Estates Commissioner verbal assurances on the above issues.
The Commissioners are currently awaiting written assurances in
confirmation either from the Home Office Minister or from another
appropriate representative of Government. The Commissioners are
very anxious that such assurances should accompany any proposed
change in the legislation to provide for their regulation by the
Charity Commission.
8. The Commissioners recognise that the
Joint Committee may not in a position to give similar assurances.
They also realise that this evidence on the draft Charities Bill
is more specific than that which has been called for by the Joint
Committee, being confined as it is to one provision that relates
only to the Commissioners and any institution that they administer.
They wish, nonetheless, to bring their concerns on these issues
to the Joint Committee's attention and to seek such assurances
on them as the Joint Committee might feel able to give.
June 2004
29 The First Lord of the Treasury, the Lord President
of the Council, the Secretary of State for the Home Department,
the Lord Chancellor, the Speaker of the House of Commons and the
Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Back
30
Church Commissioners Measure 1947, section 12. Back
31
Church Commissioners Measure 1947, section 6(3B)(e). Back
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