CHURCH OF ENGLAND ASSEMBLY (POWERS) ACT, 1919. (Hansard, 10 July 1940)

§ Mr. Denman (Leeds, Central)

I beg to move, That, in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the Ecclesiastical Dilapidations (Chancel Repairs) Measure, 1940, be presented to His Majesty for Royal Assent. The House will perhaps allow me to make a few remarks on both this Measure and the following Measure on the Order Paper together. They are exceedingly simple and useful little Measures, and, I believe, entirely uncontroversial. The first Measure is to correct an omission from the existing law, and where a chancel in which the diocesan authority is interested is in need of repair, this Measure authorises the authority to use part of its capital in that repair and not merely the income of the Fund. That is the effective purpose of the first Measure.

The second Measure is simply a war Measure and endures simply for the period of the war. The purpose of it is to enable the Diocesan Dilapidation Boards to postpone procedure that at present is required by law in the inspection of beneficed buildings. It is thought that it may not be possible in war-time to maintain the 1207 usual five-year period of inspection and the whole procedure of collection of contributions for that purpose, and this Measure gives power to postpone to the end of the war the processes that would otherwise have to take place at periodic intervals.