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Church of England: Administration

Answer

The National Church Institutions (NCIs), of which the Church Commissioners are one, can only provide information on staff employed by the Church of England's national charities, which are predominantly based at Church House, Westminster.

Providing information for every year since 2000 would require extensive archival research and would incur disproportionate costs. It would also incur disproportionate costs to provide distinct figures for staff working solely in administrative roles

The 42 Diocesan Boards of Finance, approximately 12,500 Parochial Church Councils, 42 Cathedral Chapters (including those in Europe and the Isle of Man), 17 Theological Education Institutions, all Church schools and other arm's-length bodies, are separate charities.

Information relating to administrative staff in those organisations is not held centrally, although each publishes annual reports and accounts with the Charity Commission.

The National Church Institutions can provide an illustrative example of overall staff costs for the year 2025 (the most recent for which figures are available). This includes employer pension contributions and employer National Insurance contributions, but excludes asset management costs for the Church Commissioners and Church of England Pensions Board.

• Church Commissioners: staff costs of £6.8 million for employees undertaking administrative, secretariat and church functions. (Details are contained in Note 8, page 113, of the Church Commissioners Annual Report and Accounts 2025.)

• Archbishops' Council: £14.4 million for administrative, secretariat and staff undertaking church functions.

• Church of England Pensions Board: £6 million for administrative functions, comprising £3.2 million supporting housing operations, £2.2 million supporting community living activities and £0.6 million for secretariat functions.

• Church of England Central Services: £15.2 million for secretariat functions.

• National Society for Promoting Religious Education: £4.0 million for secretariat functions

Further information is available in the published annual reports and accounts of the respective organisations.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

27876

Session

2026-27

Subjects

Staff Administration Church of England

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk