Captain CROOKSHANKasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, as representing the First Commissioner of Works, whether, in view of the facilities provided by the Union of Benefices Measure, 1923, for the pulling down of churches and the sale of their sites, he will consider the desirability of extending to ecclesiastical buildings in ecclesiastical use the protection of the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act, 1913, from which they are at present expressly excluded?
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§ Sir V. HENDERSONThe Act of 1913 excludes ecclesiastical buildings in use because the Church authorities agreed to deal with this question themselves, by setting up advisory bodies of experts in each diocese under the direction of its Chancellor. Under these circumstances my Noble Friend is not prepared at the present time to ask for an extension of the powers conferred by the Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act, 1913.