---

Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure

9.41 p.m.

The Lord Bishop of Liverpool rose to move, That this House do direct that, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent.
 
22 Mar 2005 : Column 218
 

The right reverend Prelate said: My Lords, although this measure is the most technical of the three Measures before the House today, I hope that I need not detain your Lordships long in considering it since its purpose is the worthy one of making modest and uncontentious changes to various aspects of ecclesiastical law.

The law of the Church of England is complex and substantial and, from time to time, needs (like secular law) to be corrected or brought up to date to reflect changed circumstances. To that end, from time to time the General Synod enacts miscellaneous provisions Measures to amend Church legislation in ways which would not ordinarily merit free-standing legislation. This Measure is the latest in that series of Measures.

Like other such Measures, this one deals with a diverse range of matters, united by little other than the fact that the changes made are uncontentious within the Church. Thus this particular Measure amends no fewer than nine pieces of legislation as well as making new provision. But there are certain common themes in its contents, in terms of a desire to improve processes, give greater flexibility and clarify or harmonise problematic provisions. Some brief examples of those themes may assist the House to appreciate the way in which the measure will benefit the Church at all levels.

First, a number of the Measure's provisions will assist the national institutions of the Church, especially the Church Commissioners. For example, at the suggestion of Her Majesty's Treasury, the requirement that the Treasury appoint the commissioners' auditor and direct the manner in which the audit of their accounts is to be undertaken will be removed. In future, the Commissioners' Audit Committee itself will have responsibility both for appointing the auditor and directing the manner of the audit in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards.

Additionally, the Measure will give effect to a request from the Privy Council to relieve it of responsibility for confirming schemes made by the commissioners under the Pastoral Measure to reorganise parishes and to determine the future of churches that are no longer pastorally needed. This administrative change which has the support of the commissioners and the dioceses is expected to result in the faster processing of pastoral and redundancy schemes in future and will not prejudice existing rights of appeal to the Privy Council. That is most important.

There are then a number of provisions which will assist the work of the Church at a more local level. Thus, dioceses will be helped by the creation of a new statutory office of "diocesan secretary", who will act as the chief administrative officer of the diocese, undertaking such administrative functions as may be specified by future legislation or by the diocesan synod.

Last, but by no means least, the Measure also includes various provisions which relate to the work of the Church at parish level. Thus, for example, Clause 4 of the Measure, together with changes made to the Church Representation Rules by other legislation, will complete a process of bringing the
 
22 Mar 2005 : Column 219
 
accounting regime for parochial church councils in line with that applicable under the Charities Act 1993 to charities generally.

I hope that this brief summary of some of the principal provisions of the Measure will help to commend its usefulness to your Lordships. It has of course been found expedient by the Ecclesiastical Committee and now comes to your Lordships' House for approval. I trust that noble Lords will feel able to give that without hesitation. I beg to move.

Moved, That this House do direct that, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919, the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Bishop of Liverpool.)

Baroness Wilcox: My Lords, we on these Benches thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Liverpool for the patience with which he has worked his way through these technical Measures.

I take the moment to say that this is Holy Week and one wonders whether, if our dear Lord Jesus were here, He would smile at all this tidying up that we are doing on the Church's behalf—faster processing, diocesan secretaries and accounting regimes. I am sure that He would approve of it all and still smile. It is the opinion of these Benches that this Measure is expedient.

Lord Shutt of Greetland: My Lords, as I indicated, I am very happy to support these Measures on behalf of these Benches. While I am speaking, perhaps I may wish the right reverend Prelate well in the very important task he has of conducting a splendid memorial service to Lord Sheppard of Liverpool.

The Lord Bishop of Liverpool: My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their support and especially for the commendation of my predecessor by the noble Lord, Lord Shutt. I shall be seeing Lady Sheppard on Good Friday and will take to her the message from the House, which I know will be greatly appreciated.

Perhaps I may also put on record that the Church of England is deeply grateful to those members of the Ecclesiastical Committee who give so much of their time in scrutinising the legislation, which makes it so easy for this House to accept its recommendations. I urge the House to support the Motion.

On Question, Motion agreed to.

Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004 (Relaxation of Restriction on Disclosure) Order 2005

9.47 p.m.

Lord Davies of Oldham rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 9 February be approved [9th Report from the Joint Committee].

The noble Lord said: My Lords, noble Lords will recall that during the passage of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004, concerns were raised about Section
 
22 Mar 2005 : Column 220
 
54, which contained restrictions on the disclosure of information obtained during a local government audit or study by an auditor, or the Auditor General.

Section 54 had been included to reflect closely the provisions of Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act 1998. Although there were wide exceptions permitting disclosure, both pieces of legislation imposed a criminal sanction on a person who disclosed information in contravention of those provisions. At the time, the Government considered that it was necessary to retain Section 54 to maintain consistency between England and Wales in the criminal sanctions to be imposed by primary legislation.

Nevertheless, the Government acknowledged the concerns raised and amended Section 54 during its passage here in this House. The amendment gave the Secretary of State the power to amend Section 54 after enactment. The power can be used only to reflect changes to the provisions of Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act. The power to amend in Section 54 of the Public Audit (Wales) Act cannot be used to impose any further restriction on the disclosure of information.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs undertook a review of statutory bars to the disclosure of information to make them consistent with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. As a result of that review, on 1 January 2005 the Freedom of Information (Removal and Relaxation of Statutory Prohibitions on Disclosure of Information) Order 2004 came into force.

Article 8 of that order amended Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act. It reversed the presumption against disclosure of information in respect of public authorities and persons acting on their behalf, for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The reversal related to information obtained in the course of audit and inspection functions under any provision of the Audit Commission Act, or of Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1999.

As Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act has now been amended to relax the restriction on disclosure, Section 54 of the Public Audit (Wales) Act can also be amended. In doing so, we will ensure that it continues to match closely the provisions in Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act, and the purpose of the draft order is to accomplish exactly that.

Article 2(3) of the draft order provides that the restrictions on the disclosure of information in Section 54 do not apply to public authorities or persons acting on their behalf. "Public authorities" for this purpose would include the Auditor General for Wales and his staff, and a local government body and its employees.

Article 2(4) then relaxes the disclosure provisions in respect of those public authorities by inserting a new Section 54A in the Act. Information may be disclosed by or on behalf of such authorities in any of the wide range of exceptions specified in Section 54(2): in respect of programmes of economy, efficiency and effectiveness studies—commonly known as value for money studies—of registered social landlords in Wales agreed between the Auditor General for Wales and the National
 
22 Mar 2005 : Column 221
 
Assembly for Wales; in any other circumstances except where disclosure would be prejudicial or would be likely to be prejudicial to the effective performance of the statutory functions of the public authority making the disclosure or on whose behalf it is made.

As an example of such prejudicial disclosure, an audit could be prejudiced, if public bodies subject to audit or study were able to obtain advance notice of the audit methodology or the preliminary conclusions of the auditing bodies. The amendments made to Section 54 by the order will ensure that information can still be disclosed in all the circumstances previously allowable under Section 54 before its amendment and also create a wide category of circumstances in which information can lawfully be disclosed.

If a public authority or a person acting on its behalf disclose information not authorised by new Section 54A, that person is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum. The existing sanction of imprisonment would no longer apply.

The Government's legal advice at the time of drafting the Freedom of Information Act order amending Section 49 of the Audit Commission Act was that it could extend to the amendment or repeal of legislation only in so far as it applied to public authorities. The Government, however, remain firmly committed to allowing the disclosure of information by organisations that would still be subject to Sections 54 and 49 as amended but are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. We are considering all the legislative avenues that are available to us to achieve that as quickly as possible.

I hope that this clearly demonstrates the Government's commitment to follow through on our undertaking to address the concerns raised by Clause 54 during the passage of the Bill and that the order will be approved to relax the current restrictions on disclosure of information. I beg to move.

Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 9 February be approved [9th Report from the Joint Committee].—(Lord Davies of Oldham.)

---