Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, because she said almost everything that I was going to say, which is always a great help. I am the chair of the Ecclesiastical Committee, which is a Joint Committee of both Houses, with 30 members. We found it extremely easy. We were created under the assembly Act 1919 and it is our job, as noted by the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, to find a Measure from General Synod either expedient or not expedient—that is our sole duty. The chaplains Measure was extremely easy. It is a very sensible clearing up of an anomaly which had gone on for many years. The committee spent very little time on it. We spent a great deal of time over the redress Measure. We had extremely helpful information from the Church and a considerable group led by the right reverend Prelate. We found the information provided to us useful. As the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, said, we asked a lot of very searching questions. We received a lot of information from two or three people who disapproved of the Measure, but rather more information from those who approved of it. We had a number of victim survivors attend our open meeting, and a considerable number more, I understand, listening online. We had no trouble at all, having heard the extremely helpful information from the Church, in eventually finding that this was a very good, sensible step forward. As the noble Baroness, Lady Harris, says, of course it is not perfect—nothing that goes through Parliament or through the General Synod is perfect—but it is an extremely good start and we were delighted to support it. I commend both Measures to the House.