Question

To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to p.10 of the report entitled Church Commissioners' Research into Historic Links to Transatlantic Chattel Slavery, published on 1 January 2023, for what reason that report was not peer reviewed to an academic standard.

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.