THE latest Second Church Estates Commissioner is to be announced in the approaching weeks, after the longest wait because the office was established in 1948.
A Cabinet Office spokesman confirmed on Monday that the name could be made public “in the following few weeks”. It is known that the appointment was confirmed in mid-July but has not been made public. Parliament went into recess on 30 July, shortly after the General Election, and reconvened on Monday. The latest Commissioner is scheduled to reply oral questions on 15 October.
The Second Church Estates Commissioner is, by convention, an MP drawn from the governing party within the House of Commons. His or her primary parliamentary role is to reply oral and written questions from MPs about Church of England matters.
It is a Crown appointment, made on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, and the post-holder is required to be a confirmed lay member of the Church of England.
Almost nine weeks have passed because the General Election was held on 4 July. It has been typical to attend between six and 7 weeks for a reputation to be announced, although occasionally it has taken under two weeks.
The previous Commissioner, Andrew Selous, served as an MP for South West Bedfordshire from 2001 until 2024, when the constituency was abolished. He was unsuccessful in a bid for election in the brand new constituency of Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard.
A lot of Labour Anglican MPs are already spoken for: the brand new Labour Cabinet accommodates the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves; the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy; the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting; and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds (News, 10 July).
While data on the religious identity of MPs just isn’t available, data on the voting population — from which MPs are drawn — highlights that the self-professed Anglicans are likely to vote Conservative. YouGov data analysed by Exeter University suggests that 45 per cent of professed Anglicans voted Conservative within the last General Election, while 12 per cent voted for Labour.
The Second Church Estates Commissioner has typically been a more senior member of the House of Commons, with MPs taking over the role as a final responsibility before retirement. Mr Selous had served as an MP for 19 years upon his appointment. In 1974, nevertheless, Terence Walker was appointed just nine months after becoming the Labour MP for Kingswood. He was just 39 on the time; the common age of the person taking over the post is 53.
