RADICAL reform of the National Church Institutions (NCIs), including the abolition of the Archbishops’ Council, has been halted after the parliamentary Ecclesiastical Committee deemed the legislation “not expedient”.
Writing to General Synod members last week, the Secretary General of the Archbishops’ Council, William Nye, relayed that the Legislative Committee of the Synod (the body responsible for submitting Measures to Parliament for approval) had decided not to seek to reintroduce the National Church Governance Measure at the July group of sessions in York.
“In light of the Ecclesiastical Committee’s expressed position, and the absence of clarity that amendments would resolve its concerns, the Committee concluded that reintroduction at this time would not be a simple or straightforward matter,” he wrote.
Concerns about the “huge power” enjoyed by the body set to replace the Archbishops’ Council (Church of England National Services or CENS) — which would assume responsibility for distributing funds allocated by the Church Commissioners — were among the doubts raised by the Ecclesiastical Committee when it considered the Measure last November (News, 21 November 2025).
The criticism was led by Danny Kruger, the Reform MP for East Wiltshire, who feared “huge power held in the hands of a new charity which is unaccountable to Parliament or to Synod, to do what it likes”.
The Committee also expressed concern about the inclusion in the charitable objects of the CENS of purposes “ancillary to its main charitable purpose”, and about where accountability for safeguarding would reside in the new structure. Last December, it deemed the Measure “not expedient” (News, 12 December 2025).
In his letter, Mr Nye said that members of the Committee had “made clear that their primary concern was in relation to safeguarding, which it felt should be prioritised ahead of further engagement with Governance reform”. The process of establishing a national charity to provide independent oversight of the Church’s safeguarding has yet to conclude.
The Legislative Committee will report on the withdrawal of the governance Measure in July. The earliest realistic date to reintroduce and amend the Measure would be February 2027, Mr Nye said. “That level of delay could be damaging for the work of the NCIs.”
He wrote: “The Legislative Committee also hopes that National Church bodies will reflect upon what changes can be affected by non-legislative and other routes without the requirement for statute to give effect to the policy intention which the Synod has overwhelmingly supported.
”Whilst this is disappointing news, we respect the decision of the Ecclesiastical Committee which is committed to a constructive scrutiny process and seeks to promote trust in the Church’s governance. The trustee bodies affected are now being invited to review potential non-legislative opportunities to progress governance work over the coming months while the work on the future of safeguarding structures is progressed.”
The Measure, which received an almost unanimous vote in favour in General Synod last year, would have enabled the reduction of the NCIs from seven to four (News, 1 August 2025). Sir David Lidington, a former Lord Chancellor who chaired the National Governance Programme Board, told the Ecclesiastical Committee in November that the “overriding objective” was “to try to amend the administrative arrangements of the Church of England in such a way as would be conducive to creating a culture of much greater trust and mutual confidence and co-operation”.
The Third Church Estates Commissioner, Sir Robert Buckland, warned that delaying reform meant “putting more cost” on the NCIs in a way that did not serve the laity.
