Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Church Commissioners – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 26 October 2010.
Tony Baldry
The Second Church Estates Commissioner
2:30,
26 October 2010
The difficulty with the gift aid scheme at the present moment is that churches and parishes have to maintain enormous numbers of paper records, just in case there is any spot check from HMRC. It involves thousands of volunteer hours just to do so, and it would be perfectly possible to do it as effectively online, much more simply. That would be in everyone's interests, not least those of HMRC. The Church and, I am sure, other charities will continue to pursue that with ministerial colleagues in the Treasury and with the Treasury itself.
Matters concerning the established Church of England are dealt with at Question Time by a parliamentary representative of the church commissioners.
The church commissioner's role is to answer any parliamentary questions relating to the Church of England in the same way that a government minister may face questions about a particular government department.
The Second Church Estates Commissioner is appointed by the crown and is traditionally a backbench member of the party in government. The appointment lasts for the duration of the Parliament.
