To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, if he will make a statement on the policy of the Church Commissioners towards redundant churches. [76006]

When a Church of England church is closed for public worship under the Pastoral Measure it is the policy of the Church Commissioners to assist and encourage the diocese to seek a suitable alternative use for the building. If no such use can be found, the Commissioners usually have to decide in the light of the advice of their statutory advisers, the Advisory Board for Redundant Churches, between preservation by the Churches Conservation Trust and demolition.