Member

However, in the last year, we have stopped two. That was almost unheard of. The first of the two that we stopped was the conduct Measure, and for a very good reason: the Church, through the General Synod, took the view that most of the hearings of serious misconduct should be heard in private. The committee which I chair took the view that the Church needed to be transparent and accountable and to be seen to be so by the public, who were becoming, as your Lordships will know, in some ways rather disillusioned over a number of sexual abuse cases and what the IICSA’s very good report had said. We stopped it on only one issue, although in the report there is also our concern that, where there are what are, in effect, Henry VIII clauses in a Measure, we would like to see the draft regulations, which would actually show what happens on the ground. We put that in the report, which I will present to your Lordships, and the Church has taken that on board.