In order to increase survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest NHS England has worked in partnership with St John’s Ambulance and others to increase access to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training.

Local ambulance trusts, charities, including St John’s Ambulance and the British Heart Foundation, and private providers deliver CPR training and training on the use of defibrillators both in the community and in schools, under the Restart a Heart programme.

The new remote betting rate is part of the package of changes to gambling duties announced at Budget 2025 which will raise over £1 billion per year to support the public finances. In person betting will remain taxed at 15% for all sports, and only remote betting, excluding remote bets on UK horseracing, will be taxed at 25%.

An assessment of the impact of any tax change is published within the relevant Tax Impact and Information Note: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-gambling-duties/gambling-duty-changes.

At Budget 2025, the government announced a package of changes to gambling duties which will raise over £1 billion per year to support the public finances.    

As part of this package, remote betting will see an increase from 15% to 25% from 1 April 2027. Remote bets on UK horseracing will be excluded from these changes and remain taxed at 15%, as operators already contribute 10% towards the statutory Horserace Betting Levy, resulting in an existing de-factor 25% rate for bets on UK horse races.

The new remote betting rate is part of the package of changes to gambling duties announced at Budget 2025 which will raise over £1 billion per year.

An assessment of the impact of any tax change is published within the relevant Tax Impact and Information Note. See link: Gambling duty changes - GOV.UK

The National Church Institutions are not responsible for the operations of the Diocese of London, which is a separate charitable body. The Hon Member for Romford should direct his question to the Chief Operating Officer of the London Diocesan Fund. Contact details can be found on the diocesan website.

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.

The Ministry Development Board chaired by the Lord Bishop of Chester, has launched a national programme, called 'What is your part in God's Story', with targeted resources made available across the Church.

There has been a significant rise in candidates for ordination for each of the last two years, with numbers of ordinantions up by 34% this last Petertide (June).

An improved maintenance package for fulltime ordinands is begining this year and represents a significant extra investment by the Church to improve ordinand wellbeing.

Each Teological Education Institution (TEI) training clergy for the Church of England is an independent charity. the Church is greatful to them for their ongoing and vital contribution to the shaping and development of future clergy.

Steps taken by the National Church Insitutions over the last three years include:

• Ongoing, regular and detailed enggement with TEI Principals and thier staff.
• A robust financial review to identify challenges.
• Reordering and considerable investment in finances made available for this stage of clergy training.
• Continued investment in the 'Common Awards' validated by Durham University, and providing academic stability, security and efficiency.
• A review of the provision in the sector to align need and provision.
• An improved maintenance package for fulltime ordinands, representing a significant extra investment to improve ordinand wellbeing.

We are grateful to all those who seek to support the Church in its service to this nation, including 'Save the Parish' (StP) for their recent consultation and subsequent report. The Lord Bishop of Chester, who chairs the Church’s Ministry Board (MDB), attended the launch of the report.

The issues raised are under active consideration. Many of those raised by Save the Parish are already a focus of specific and ongoing work in the Church (for example, the ‘Called’ campaign, or the review of ordinand support). The Bishop of Chester has asked for ongoing conversation with Save the Parish to clarify some of the suggestions made in the report and remains grateful for their focus in highlighting some key issues.

No formal assessment has been made as the law has not been changed. The General Synod voted in July 2025 in favour of motion which reaffirmed its ongoing opposition to a change in the law, and that called on the Government to work to improve funding and access to desperately needed palliative care services.

The Government is committed to tackling number plate crime. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) works closely with police forces and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to improve the identification and enforcement.

Under its Road Safety Strategy, the Department for Transport is reviewing motoring offences. It has consulted on introducing penalty points and vehicle seizure for those in charge of a vehicle displaying an incorrect, altered or false number plate. The consultation closed on 11 May and responses are being considered.

The DVLA is also considering how to make the Register of Number Plate Suppliers more robust and auditable, enabling tighter checks on suppliers and the plates they provide. This includes reviewing the scheme’s fees, structure, resources and funding.

Working with the British Standards Institution, the DVLA has developed targeted amendments to the British Standard for number plates. These would prohibit raised or “ghost” characteristics and require finished plates to be flat, directly addressing the products of greatest concern. Work is under way to bring these changes into law.

The Department has also funded a new National Roads Policing Coordination Centre to help police forces share intelligence, collaborate more effectively and use data and technology to target those using illegal number plates.

One residential Tehological Education Institution (TEI) training clergy for the Church of England has closed in that period, which was St John's College in Nottingham which closed in 2019.

The Ministry Development Board, chaired by the Lord Bishop of Chester, has launched a national programme, 'Called: What is your part in Gods Story', with targeted resources made available across the Church.

There has been a significant rise in candidates for ordinantion for each of the last two years, with numbers of ordinations up by 34% this last Petertide (June). There is a general focus on all forms of ordained ministry, including fulltime, stipendiary vocations to the priesthood.

An improved maintenance package for fulltime ordinands is begining this year, representing a significant additional investment in ordinand wellbeing. There have also been significant recent investments in clergy wellbeing, including increases to the stipend and pension entitlements.

Data is held centrally for the years 2011 to 2025 only. Obtaining equivalent data for the period 2000 to 2010 would require extensive archival research and incur disproportionate cost.

The table below shows the proportion of parishes forming part of a multi-parish benefice over this period. Multi-parish benefices most commonly consist of two parishes, while a small minority of benefices may consist of more than five parishes

Rural parishes usually have lower residential populations than urban parishes, and rural areas are more likely to have multi-parish benefices and benefices consisting of more than five parishes. This tends to reflect the local communities' desire to maintain historic parish identities and, where possible, keep parish churches open for worship.

Data for 2014 is not available because the creation of the Diocese of Leeds (formerly the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales) on 1 April 2014 which involved substantial parish and diocesan boundary changes throughout the year, making annual figures for that year unavailable on a comparable basis.