North Oxfordshire MP Tony Baldry, who has been campaigning for the Government to take action on lead and metal theft, has welcomed the announcement by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, that the Government is going to introduce legislation to tackle the problem by making it a new criminal offence to prohibit cash payments to purchase scrap and by significantly increasing the fines for all offences under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964.

Tony Baldry: There are no apprentices currently employed by the Church Commissioners or the Church of England.

Tony Baldry: The Church of England only has information pertaining to its Church of England schools. There are around 4,700 of these schools and academies across the country, spanning both the primary and secondary sectors.

As Second Church Estates Commissioner, metal theft is a key issue for Tony Baldry MP. Following his letter to the Home Secretary on the subject at the beginning of January, Tony has now received a response from Lord Henley, Minister responsible for Crime Prevention, a copy of which can be found by clicking on the link provided here: Metal Theft from Lord Henley 100111.

Second Church Estates Commissioner and North Oxfordshire MP, Tony Baldry, has written a letter to the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Theresa May MP regarding the increasingly prominent issue of metal thefts.

Tony Baldry: The Church of England Pensions Board administers three pension schemes on behalf of the Church of England.

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the statement on page 57 of the Autumn Statement (Cm 8231) that the Government will invest £5 million to set up a nationwide taskforce to target metal thieves and scrap metal dealers who illegally trade in stolen metal, of whom this taskforce will comprise; who will lead the taskforce; what the anticipated timescale is of its operation; on what basis its budget has been set; and if she will make a statement. [84939]

Figures from the police obtained by the BBC show there were 263 thefts between May and October, compared with 99 during the same period in 2010.

In 1836, shortly after the passing of the Great Reform Bill, Parliament established the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Parliament’s concern was that some dioceses had substantial estates and revenues whilst others, such as the newly growing cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, had little by way of estates or revenue, but clearly growing needs. So Parliament all of the Church’s existing estates and revenues under the control of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, particularly charged to have regard for the needs of the poorer dioceses.

On 29 November, Second Church Estates Commissioner Tony Baldry MP met with Richard Benyon MP, Minister in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to discuss bats in churches.