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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

My Lords, the reference to the Church of England in the Bill was inserted in recognition of its particular constitutional position, rather than because it was a religious institution or organisation. The noble Lord may not have been present when I moved the relevant amendment in Committee; I cannot recall. The long-standing convention is that the Government will not legislate on anything within the competence of the Church of England, which has de facto delegated power, without the agreement of the Church. Such agreement takes different forms depending on the circumstances. Concerns were expressed about the ability to use the order-making powers in the Bill to legislate in a way that affected the Church’s functions without having to obtain its consent. The Government took these concerns to heart and proposed an amendment to Clause 32, which was approved by your Lordships’ House. The clause was amended to fulfil the Government’s obligation under the convention, and ensures that the powers under Clause 2 and Part 2 will not apply to the regulatory activities of bishops, church courts and disciplinary tribunals or to the legislative role of the General Synod, where it passes legislation that has a regulatory effect. The noble Lord’s amendment raises other issues and, despite the reasonable intentions behind it, we cannot agree that it should be included. The Church of England has a unique constitutional position with Parliament and the passing of legislation in relation to it. Other religious organisations in the UK do not have similar standing and there is no precedent for treating these organisations in the same way, which probably answers both questions posed by the noble Lord. Whether this position in relation to religious organisations is correct or wrong in principle is, I would argue, not the subject of this Bill. For the purpose of ensuring that the Bill remains focused on better regulation, I would also say that it is not a subject for this House today. Perhaps I should also point out that the amendment does not attempt to define a religious organisation, so perhaps it does not fall into that trap. There is no agreed definition of the term in English law. If the amendment were agreed, there would of course be a whole host of arguments about whether a particular body fell within the terms of the definition. The noble Lord could stir up something of a hornets’ nest if he wanted to. I hope that that satisfies the noble Lord.