Cathedrals Measure

Lord Wilson of Dinton Excerpts

Thursday 22nd April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wilson of Dinton (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I will contribute briefly to this debate in a positive spirit, very much in support of the Measure. First, I declare my own interest: I am chair of the council of Ely Cathedral, one of the bodies which, under Clause 2(3) of the Measure, is to cease to exist. This cancellation sounds rather dramatic, but I do not object to it in the least; I think it is the right thing to do.

When I was honoured by the invitation from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Ely to be a chair of the council five years ago, I must confess that I was not absolutely sure what the council did. Five years later, I am still not absolutely sure what the council is formally there for. Honestly, that is no reflection on the Bishop or the dean: they are both great men who do lovely jobs. It is not a reflection on my fellow members, who are very involved and active and are a source of support, loyalty and activity for the cathedral, which is excellent, and I pay tribute to them. It is not the fault of the chapter or of anyone in Ely; it is the fault of the 1999 Cathedrals Measure.

Although Baroness Howe wrote a report, I do not believe that the 1999 Measure actually implemented what that report recommended. The concept of the council, as it emerged in 1999, was a bit of a fudge—I should not say that. The result is that you now have bodies that may be useful because of the sort of people that you have on them—they are determined to be useful. However, they are in a position of responsibility without power, which is very uncomfortable and potentially dangerous, if something is going wrong and they can see that but cannot do anything about it—that is not satisfactory.

As such, I note the consultations leading up to this, which began in 2017—I was involved in them. I was a bit pessimistic about this exercise: I thought that there were too many divided views, too many strong differing opinions and too many cathedrals that were too different from one another. They were like colleges: particular creatures of their own kind.

I am delighted and impressed by this Measure; it is a remarkable achievement, which has been achieved by a lot of people. It has very clear structures for cathedrals, separating governance and management in a very clear-minded way—it will be a big improvement. It makes a good step forward in relation to the role of the Charity Commission, which has a lot of work to do—but it has already done a lot of work and found the resources to do it. That is my impression; I am not close to it. Having it alongside the Church Commissioners is a very positive step. Ensuring the central importance of safeguarding is important. This is a very sound basis for our great, glorious cathedrals to go ahead. A lot of hard work has gone into it, and we ought to pause for one moment to say “Well done” to the legal draftsmen, the steering committee and the synod, which were coaxed into doing it, as well as so many other people who have contributed to this.

From the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, and others, we have heard some really nasty-sounding cases, and I will not comment on them, beyond one thing. Having been master of a college for 10 years and having seen things go wrong in other colleges and other parts of life, I know that, sometimes, in small communities that are too cut off from the rest of the world, toxins build up, poisons intensify and things go badly wrong. It is very hard to stop this and put them right once they have gone beyond a certain point, and I have great sympathy with the Church authorities in trying to sort these cases out.

The solution is to open the windows, to have outsiders in there and to blow away the toxins before they become too intense and multiply too much. In implementing this wise new Measure, it is important for cathedrals to have the windows open, to involve outsiders and to use their power to set up not formal councils as part of their corporate entity but councils that support them if they want to do that—or to set up whatever advisory or other bodies that they want. Of course, they should do that and bring in outsiders who have a role to play. However, they should not have that as their central muddled governance.

This is a big Measure that will improve the basis of the cathedrals. We should pause for a moment to have a quiet celebration of it.