Question

To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the commissioners have had discussions with the Archbishops' Council on the potential impact of recommendations from case reviews commissioned by the interim commissioner of independent reviews on earlier cases.

The Archbishops' Council commissioned the Interim Commissioner of Independent Reviews to undertake discussions with survivors who had been promised reviews by the former Independent Safeguarding Board, about the terms of reference for reviewing their cases. At the request of survivors, the number in discussion with the Interim Commissioner will be kept confidential, given that the number of survivors promised a review by the ISB is relatively small and there is a possibility of identifying individuals.

At present no reviews have been commissioned, though some are in the final stages of consideration. The timetable will depend on the terms of reference and agreements with individual survivors, and the Interim Commissioner is taking care to ensure that each review is adequate to the particular circumstances of the case.

The recent review into the events leading to the termination of contracts of the members of the Independent Safeguarding Board – the Wilkinson Report – identified lessons learned on how recommendations from all case reviews are taken forward, which will be discussed at the forthcoming February meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England.