Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Clarke of Hampstead (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 9 July 2008.

Church of England: Welfare Provision

Question: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that parts of the report give cause for concern for our society? In particular, I refer to the widely held perception of respondents that the Government are positively excluding the church in matters of faith? I would appreciate it if my noble friend could disabuse me and others of that view. In particular, will she confirm that churches, as we have just heard from the right reverend Prelate, are a great comfort to our society?

Answer: My Lords, I am very happy indeed to confirm that. We were rather disappointed with the report because we believe that the instinctive partnership that we have may be hard to evidence in detail because much of the church’s work is hard to evidence in detail. However, it goes back a long way and has a great future. One problem was that none of the authors of the report came to talk to my officials in the department who work in the cohesion and faiths division about the work that we are doing. I have a great deal of evidence of how we are working with the third sector and faith-based charities throughout the country to reach those parts of our communities that no other organisation can reach.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 703 c746
Session: 2007-08
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP2008-2054
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Deposited papers
House of Lords
Subjects: Church of England Voluntary work
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk