Katie Lam

The Church Commissioners have had informal and constructive dialogue with the Charity Commission about how to implement the Church Commissioners’ response to their historic links to African chattel enslavement (known as “Project Spire”).

This informal engagement has now concluded, and subject to authorisation by trustees the Church Commissioners anticipate that they will make appropriate applications to the Charity Commission.

Project Spire’s implementation timeline depends on this external authority to the extent that the Charity Commission will determine how long it takes to come to a decision.

Peer-reviewed publications are usually written for an academic audience. For instance, an academic journal will send a proposed article to anonymous peer reviewers. Likewise, an academic monograph proposal will be sent for peer review. Documents intended for a public audience go through a different process of internal review.

The report was initiated in 2019 via a query raised at the Church Commissioners’ Audit and Risk Committee. It is rooted in the Church Commissioners’ risk management and fiduciary duties as a 320-year-old in-perpetuity endowment fund and responsible investor. Accordingly, the analysis in the Church Commissioners’ report was underpinned out by independent professional accountants who deployed fundamental forensic techniques: detailed transactions analysis, account reconstruction and asset tracing. An overview of the work carried out by the independent accountants can be found here. The Church Commissioners also engaged independent, expert, professional historians as advisors in compiling its report.

The Church Commissioners began discussions with the Charity Commission about Project Spire in February 2023.

The Annual Reports of the Church Commissioners’ contains information on fees relating to forensic accounting services provided to support a research project into the fund of Queen Anne’s Bounty, one of the Commissioners’ predecessor bodies. Information (2023, p.105; 2022, p.105; 2021, p.90) can be viewed here: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/governance/national-church-institutions/church-commissioners-england/who-we-are/publications

Further information will be included in the Church Commissioners’ Annual Report and Accounts for 2024, which will be published next month.

The Church Commissions have not made an application to the Charity Commission to seek authority for a payment under section 105 or 106 of the Charities Act 2011 in relation to Project Spire.

The Church Commissioners have held discussions with the Charity Commission about making an application to authorise an ex-gratia payment under section 106 of the Charities Act 2011 in relation to Project Spire.

Since August 2024, the Department for Business and Trade has held discussions on the Employment Rights Bill with over 180 stakeholders from across Great Britain. This covers a range of businesses that have a presence in Kent, including Greene King, McDonalds, John Lewis, British Telecom, Co-op, DHL, MACE Group, Mars, Sainsburys, Whitbread, Burger King, Deliveroo, Fuller’s, Lucky Saint, Turtle Bay, Centrica, and Wilkinson Construction Consultant.

The Government remains committed to working in partnership with businesses, trade unions and other stakeholders to deliver the Plan to Make Work Pay.

The Government protected small businesses and charities from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, and 865,000 employers will pay no NICs in 2025-26. My Department published an Impact Assessment for the 2025 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, which includes a breakdown of the expected impacts by sector and region.

We recognise the importance of manufacturing and the tourism sector to local economies such as Kent and the Weald of Kent, where many businesses (particularly SMEs) are sensitive to changes in employment costs. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) continues to work closely with industry stakeholders and across departments to monitor the health of the visitor economy and to ensure that tourism voices are reflected in wider policy discussions.

The Government protected small businesses and charities from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, and 865,000 employers will pay no NICs in 2025-26. My Department published an Impact Assessment for the 2025 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates, which includes a breakdown of the expected impacts by sector and region.

We recognise the importance of manufacturing and the tourism sector to local economies such as Kent and the Weald of Kent, where many businesses (particularly SMEs) are sensitive to changes in employment costs. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) continues to work closely with industry stakeholders and across departments to monitor the health of the visitor economy and to ensure that tourism voices are reflected in wider policy discussions.

The Solar Taskforce, which has now concluded its work, brought together government and industry stakeholders to identify the actions needed to accelerate the deployment of solar energy by 2030, which will be outlined in the forthcoming Solar Roadmap. Following this, we will establish a new Solar Council to monitor the delivery of the Roadmap’s recommendations, including on the critical issue of ethical supply chains and procurement. DESNZ officials will continue to provide secretariat and advisory support.

Ofgem publishes price cap levels on its website. The information is available here:

Energy price cap (default tariff) levels | Ofgem.

Artificial Grass Pitches (AGPs) currently play a crucial role in getting more people active across the UK. They provide durable, safe, year-round playing surfaces which can sustain up to 80 hours of use per week - significantly more than grass pitches, helping more people to access the benefits of physical activity.

The Government is aware of potential impacts which AGPs have related to the spread of rubber crumb - which contains microplastics. While, currently, there is no clear alternative, DCMS continues to work closely with Defra and the wider sector to help identify a viable long-term solution, which can maximise opportunities to get active in the most healthy and sustainable way possible.

In 2017, the European Chemical Agency published findings from a study which found there is no reason to advise people against playing sports on synthetic turf containing recycled rubber granules as infill material. Further European-led research published in the scientific journal Science of the Total Environment in 2020 reported there were no health concerns for AGPs, and in 2024 the US Environmental Protection Agency published a report noting no significant difference in chemical exposure between players on artificial grass and those on natural grass fields.

The department does not hold or collect information regarding how many asylum seekers aged 25 and under require special educational needs provision.

The department spends over £1.5 billion supporting schools to deliver healthy and nutritious breakfasts and lunches in schools. Schools are best placed to make decisions about how provision is made. They have the autonomy to source food locally and sustainably, and to cater to religious dietary requirements based on the needs of their local communities. The department does not hold the requested information, owing to the freedoms that schools have. However, details about the UK’s overall sources of food are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2024/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2024-theme-2-uk-food-supply-sources#overall-sources-of-uk-food.

The department spends over £1.5 billion supporting schools to deliver healthy and nutritious breakfasts and lunches in schools. Schools are best placed to make decisions about how provision is made. They have the autonomy to source food locally and sustainably, and to cater to religious dietary requirements based on the needs of their local communities. The department does not hold the requested information, owing to the freedoms that schools have. However, details about the UK’s overall sources of food are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2024/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2024-theme-2-uk-food-supply-sources#overall-sources-of-uk-food.

The department spends over £1.5 billion supporting schools to deliver healthy and nutritious breakfasts and lunches in schools. Schools are best placed to make decisions about how provision is made. They have the autonomy to source food locally and sustainably, and to cater to religious dietary requirements based on the needs of their local communities. The department does not hold the requested information, owing to the freedoms that schools have. However, details about the UK’s overall sources of food are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2024/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2024-theme-2-uk-food-supply-sources#overall-sources-of-uk-food.

The previous Government did not hold information about where the food served by public bodies comes from. However, at January’s Oxford Farming Conference, it was announced that, for the first time ever, the Government would monitor just that. The initial phase of the work to better understand the data available across public sector food supply chains is near completion. It will inform further work to develop a mechanism via which the Government is able to better understand how much of the food bought by the public sector is from British suppliers.

As Minister for Farming, I have visited abattoirs and will continue to do so.

Since January 2025 there have been 16 pieces of correspondence addressed to Defra ministers by producer organisations, expressing their concern over the discontinuation of the Fruit and Vegetables Aid Scheme on 31 December 2025.

Defra ministers regularly visit farms and meet with farmers nearly every week.

The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme sources the fruit and vegetables used by the scheme from a number of different countries. 18.9% of the produce used by the scheme is sourced from the United Kingdom, and this is the highest proportion of any country supplying produce to the scheme.

We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise and National Minimum Wage rise was implemented in April 2025.

General practices (GPs) are valued independent contractors who provide over £13 billion worth of National Health Services. Every year we consult with the profession about what services GPs provide, and the money providers are entitled to in return under their contract, taking account of the cost of delivering services.

We are investing an additional £889 million into GPs to reinforce the front door of the NHS, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.2 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest increase in over a decade, and we are pleased that the General Practitioners Committee England is supportive of the contract changes.

The Government has considered the cost pressures facing adult social care as part of the wider consideration of local government spending within the Spending Review process in 2024.

To enable local authorities to deliver key services such as adult social care, the Government has made available up to £3.7 billion of additional funding for social care authorities in 2025/26, which includes an £880 million increase in the Social Care Grant.

The additional funding available to Kent in 2025/26 means that they have seen an increase to their core spending power of up to 7% in cash terms.

We have made the necessary decisions to fix the foundations of the public finances in the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement. The employers’ National Insurance rise and National Minimum Wage rise was implemented in April 2025.

The National Health Service’s planning guidance for 2025/26 has now been published, and sets out the funding available to integrated care boards (ICBs), including the dental ringfence. Dental practices are businesses and decide how they operate themselves, providing they remain compliant with the appropriate regulations. It is up to dental practices to set employee pay and conditions.

The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access NHS dental care with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most. To rebuild dentistry in the long term, we will reform the dental contract with the sector, with a shift to focus on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists.

We took the necessary decisions to fix the foundations in the public finances at the Autumn Budget. Resource spending for the Department will be £22.6 billion more in 2025/26 than in 2023/24, as part of the Spending Review settlement.

The Department considered the increases to employer National Insurance and the National Living Wage as part of the funding arrangements for community pharmacy in 2024/25 and 2025/26. We have increased funding for community pharmacy to £3.073 billion from April 2025. This represents the largest uplift in funding of any part of the National Health Service, at over 19% across 2024/25 and 2025/26. This shows a first step in delivering stability for the future as well as a commitment to rebuilding the sector.