HC Deb 04 May 1904 vol 134 cc374-5
MR. HUMPHREYS - OWEN (Montgomeryshire)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the total legal expenses of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have, in the ten financial years last past, amounted approximately to £107,500; and whether he will cause a Departmental inquiry to be instituted into the matter.

(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) I have no power to order an inquiry in this matter, but I have consulted the Commissioners, who have been good enough to furnish me with the following information:—During the last ten years the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have sold land and other hereditaments belonging to themselves to the value of upwards of £1,880,000, and have purchased other hereditaments at a cost of more than £1,160,000. The consideration moneys for sales of glebe lands effected under the Ecclesiastical Leasing Acts administered by the Commissioners during the same period have amounted to upwards of £1,360,000 in respect of about 1,220 transactions. The income of the Commissioners' Common Fund received and dispensed by them is over £1,500,000 per annum, of which £1,250,000 is derived from real estates. In addition, as trustees under certain general and special Acts of Parliament and otherwise, the Commissioners receive and dispense a further income of about £227,000, of which £49,000 or thereabouts is derived from real estates. The Commissioners also manage episcopal estates, the revenue from which, mainly from real property, amounts to about £50,000 per annum. The protection of these large interests necessarily involves the Commissioners from time to time in legal proceedings and in opposition to schemes injurious thereto for which Parliamentary sanction is sought. The Commissioners have also administrative duties, under the Church Building Acts, New Parishes Acts, Union of Benefices Act, and other statutes, which have no relation to income or capital funds arising therefrom, but necessarily involve the employment of legal assistance. Taking these facts into consideration, the sum of £107,500 incurred during the last ten years for legal expenses, in which are included stamp duties on the above-mentioned purchases of £1,160,000 and other transactions, does not appear to be excessive.