Part of Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 12 November 2025.
Angus Robertson
Scottish National Party
Murdo Fraser has made a very good point. First, there is the issue of the accelerating rate at which churches are being disposed of across denominations. Incidentally, it is not just the Christian church but other faith groups which have been disposing of property, because of societal change and so on. I think that everybody understands that.
Secondly, we have the specific point that Murdo Fraser has raised, which is about the speed of disposal, which may be too quick for communities to have the option to get the best advice.
I assure Murdo Fraser that advice and information are available through the Historic Environment Scotland website. As we heard from Claire Baker, there has been Historic Environment Scotland involvement with other community groups. If Murdo Fraser has specific issues about specific sites and communities, I would be grateful if he could forward those to me. I am having discussions with the Church of Scotland and other denominations to best understand what we can do, because, if the process is accelerating, that will present an even greater challenge—albeit, potentially, an opportunity—and we have to make our way through the process as well as we can.
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