§ Mr. Fieldasked the hon. Member for Wokingham, as representing the Church Commissioners, of those new churches opened for worship, if he will detail how many were consecrated and how many dedicated; and if he will list this information for each year since 1960, and present the data according to each diocese.
§ Sir William van StraubenzeeThe Church Commissioners do not have any official responsibility for the maintenance of statistics about new churches. The outcome of a recent inquiry that the commissioners decided to make of their own initiative, however, was that by the end of 1981, 1,140 new churches had been opened since 1945 and that, of these, 303 had been opened since 1969—when the Pastoral Measure 1968 came into operation. I regret that the figures for the period from 1960 to the present day are not available; nor, except at disproportionate cost, is the information obtainable as to how many churches were consecrated and how many dedicated.