Question

To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what legal advice the Church of England has received on the proposed use of church funds for slavery reparations through Project Spire.

I refer the Hon. Member for Romford to the written answer to the question asked by the Hon. Member for the Weald of Kent published on 6 May 2025 (UIN 47114). Any legal advice received is subject to legal privilege in the usual way

An application to the Charities Commission for a new Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice is being prepared

Please note that the response to the historic links with African chattel enslavement (known internally by the programme/project name ‘Spire’) is not “slavery reparations”.

The Church Commissioners hope and pray that the new Fund will be an act of reparative justice and part of a meaningful process of healing and repair to bring about a better, fairer, future for all.