ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY IN ENGLAND AND WALES (Hansard, 21 January 1969)

§ Mr. Freeson
I beg to move Amendment No. 20, in page 29, line 39, leave out subsection (1) and insert the following subsections: (1) No notice under section 14 may be served in respect of a disused tip if the land on which the tip is situated is ecclesiastical property, but nothing in this subsection affects the powers of a local authority under section 17. (2) Where under this Part of this Act a document is required or authorised to be given to, or served on, any person as occupier of, or owner of an estate or interest in, any land which is ecclesiastical property, a copy of the document shall be given to or served on the Church Commissioners. (3) Any compensation payable under section 20 to a person by virtue of his having an estate in fee simple in any land shall, if that land is ecclesiastical property, be paid (where the fee simple is vested in any person other than the Church Commissioners) to them instead of that person. (4) Any sums paid under subsection (3) to the Church Commissioners with reference to any land shall, if the land is not consecrated, be applied by them for the purposes for which the proceeds of a sale by agreement of the fee simple in the land would be applicable under any enactment or Measure authorising such a sale, and, if the land is consecrated, be applied by them in such a manner as they may determine. (5) Where the fee simple in any ecclesiastical property is in abeyance—
(a) it shall be treated for the purposes of this Part of this Act as being vested in the Church Commissioners; and

(b) where, by virtue of paragraph (a) above, the Church Commissioners are owners of land belonging to a benefice and, by virtue of their ownership of that land, are under a liability to pay any sum under this Part of this Act, either as owner of a disused tip or as a contributory, their liability shall be met from, and shall not exceed the total of, the sums held by them for that benefice.
(6) Where subsection (5) does not apply but a liability to pay any sum under this Part of this Act falls on any person, either as owner 434 of a disused tip or as a contributory, by virtue of there being vested in him the fee simple in land belonging to a benefice, the Church Commissioners may apply any sums held by them for that benefice in discharging the whole or any part of that liability.

§ Mr. Speaker
I suggest that with this we take Amendment No. 22.

§ Mr. Freeson
This complex and highly technical Clause, which the Amendments are designed to put right, deals with problems created by the exceptional legal position of the Established Church in England, and another Amendment deals with Scotland. Broadly, the purpose is to amend it first to enable the provisions of the Bill to be applied when a living is vacant and, second, to enable the Church Commissioners to devote funds towards payments which under the Bill may be due to incumbents and for them to receive compensation when church property is affected by remedial operations. It is unlikely that the Clause will be used since the number of tips on church property must be very few. The House can take it that the Clause has been revised after consultation with the Church Commissioners.

§ Mr. Gibson-Watt
It is happy to think of the Minister and the Church Commissioners getting down together and hatching out this very long-winded Amendment, with which we entirely agree. Whether the Minister's agents drafted the Amendment or the Church Commissioners, I do not mind very much. We on this side agree with the Amendment.