Chancel Repair (Church Commissioners’ Liability) Measure

Baroness Butler-Sloss Excerpts

Monday 31st March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Harris of Richmond (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I will be brief. The Ecclesiastical Committee, under our excellent chair, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, considered these Measures on 3 February this year, as we have heard, after they had gone through all the synod’s scrutiny. Before I begin, I must declare my interests: I am high steward of Ripon Cathedral in North Yorkshire—as we have heard, cathedrals are also mentioned in the Measure—and I have a nephew who is a parish priest on the Isle of Man, although that is exempt from these Measures at the moment.

The first Measure, on chancel repair et cetera, is about an enforceable liability to repair or contribute to the repair of the chancel of a parish church. In essence, it would detach the Church Commissioners’ liability from the affected land and convert it into a free-standing statutory duty, as the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chichester told us clearly. This would enable the Church Commissioners to sell any land they own, free of responsibility for the repair of any chancel liabilities. The commissioners would continue to be liable to repair the chancel as a continuing statutory duty, even after they sell any land for which there is a chancel repair liability.

The Measure also makes provision for the conversion of the current statutory chancel repair duty of the chapter of each cathedral into a statutory duty of the commissioners. It does not abolish chancel repair liability or change the liability of third parties to pay contributions to any chancel repair that is needed. As the right reverend Prelate has already told us, we were happy to accept this Measure, as proposed by the synod.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, as your Lordships’ House has heard, I am chair of the Ecclesiastical Committee. The committee heard a considerable amount of evidence from the Church, and a number of MPs who are part of the Ecclesiastical Committee asked some very relevant questions, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, who has just spoken. We were satisfied, according to the 1919 statute that sets up the Ecclesiastical Committee, that it was “expedient”—that is the phrase used in the statute—to pass this Measure to this House.

[Lord Griffiths of Burry Port (Lab)]

My Lords, I do not know whether it is appropriate for me to contribute, but I feel I must. I was also part of the committee coming to the conclusion that the noble and learned Baroness has just mentioned. My degree in theology at Cambridge clearly did not fit me for understanding the complexities of land tenure in parish churches, but I just wished—I know that this is a silly thing to say—that all the chancels in Methodist churches that I know about could have been included in the Measure being put forward.