HL Deb 23 October 1995 vol 566 c105WA
Lord Kennet

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whose advice the Charity Commissioners will seek if it is proposed to them that the terms of the City Parochial Fund should be varied so as to reduce the money currently available, in accordance with the intentions of the original testators, for maintaining the fabric of the City churches, and make these funds available instead to the diocese or the Church Commissioners for other more general purposes outwith the intentions of the original testators; and whether it is within the authority of the Charity Commissioners to make such variations.

Baroness Blatch

The City Church Fund is the part of the City Parochial Foundation the income from which is applicable for religious purposes.

The Charity Commissioners have the power to alter the trusts of the fund in the circumstances set out in Section 13 of the Charities Act 1993, subject to the statutory procedures. The commissioners would consult all bodies that would be affected by any change to the trusts of the fund, including those bodies that have the right to appoint trustees and the parochial church councils of each parish in the fund's area of benefit.