Cathedrals Measure

Baroness Harris of Richmond Excerpts

Thursday 22nd April 2021 Lords Chamber

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

My Lords, my interests in this debate are recorded in the report on the Measure, particularly that I am high steward of Ripon Cathedral, which is mentioned in the Measure. I gave notice of my intention to speak when we were in the Ecclesiastical Committee meeting because I want to record my particular displeasure about how the Clergy Discipline Measure, the CDM, operates, and how two priests I know have been treated by the Church. Speaking to this Measure is the only way I can address my concerns and bring them to your Lordships’ attention.

The first case concerns a parish priest who was accused, wrongly and maliciously, of taking money from a parishioner. He was arrested, interrogated and put into a prison cell overnight. This was an absolutely horrendous experience, made worse because he had absolutely no idea what it was all about. He is still recovering from it some two and a half years later. To make matters worse, he was suspended from his ministry, his home was searched and his bank account frozen. He was without funds, unable even to hire a solicitor. It later emerged that personal and private details of his funding were passed between his bishop and archdeacon, the police and something called the core group, which was looking into so-called safeguarding matters in the case. This in itself is outrageous and a breach of data protection guidelines.

My friend’s suspension lasted long after the police decided there was no further action to be taken against him. No charge was ever brought, and by then they were pursuing the real culprits of the fraud. It was many months before he heard what was happening with his case, and in the meantime he was given little or no pastoral support from the diocese, in contravention of its own guidelines. I have given the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Bristol a full account of this incident, as she expressed a willingness to understand what happened.

The President of Tribunals, who was dealing with a complaint from the archdeacon involving the case, dismissed it entirely in November 2020, noting that there had been serious failures of process and citing particularly the archdeacon but also the “inordinate time” that the diocese safeguarding report took to produce. This seriously damaged the quality and credibility of that report, which I understand contains a large number of significant factual errors.

I have some questions for the right reverend Prelate and would be happy for him to write to me if he feels that is more appropriate. Will this safeguarding report be removed from my friend’s blue file immediately? If it is not, this injustice continues and could affect the rest of his future ministry; he is still quite a young man. What are the core group’s terms of reference? To whom does it report? To whom is it accountable?

The CDM was never enacted in my friend’s case, yet the threat of it has hung over him since March 2020 and has only recently been lifted. It is seriously wanting and needs urgent replacement.

The second case concerns another priest—from the same diocese, as it happens—who has been and continues to be harassed and stalked by someone of whom the Church is well aware, yet it gives no support to the priest. It appears that the diocese has absolutely no policy that protects its clergy from this kind of stalking and obsessive behaviour. The perpetrator posts highly damaging allegations about this priest on the internet, which remain there as the diocese has declined to help. This priest—like any other I know—simply does not have the funds to bring an injunction against the person stalking him, so it goes on.

There must be many other shocking examples of how the Church fails to safeguard its clergy from these people, yet it has spent a lot of money getting in place a safeguarding policy against its clergy. I believe it needs to look again at how it supports its own and, at least in these two cases, quickly remedy its mistakes.