A FORMER Lord Chancellor, Sir Robert Buckland, has been appointed as the new Third Church Estates Commissioner.
Elected in 2010 as the Conservative MP for South Swindon, a seat that he held until last year, he served as HM Solicitor General for England and Wales, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Minister of State for Prisons, and Secretary of State for Wales. He was a practising barrister for nearly 20 years and a part-time Crown Court judge. He was appointed a QC in 2014 and KBE in 2022.
Sir Robert, who grew up in Llanelli and joined the Conservative Party at the age of 15, has described how his political views were formed around the time of the miners’ strike in the early 1980s.
“We lived on the edge of the coalfield,” he told the magazine Counsel in 2022. “I didn’t like what was happening: unlawful striking, Arthur Scargill. . . I was never worried that my views in politics were not generally shared by my peers.”
Having campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum, he helped to steer the EU (Withdrawal) Bill through the House of Commons, arguing that not abiding by the result of the vote would have been “devastating for democracy”. He has described the assisted-dying Bill as “unworkable”.
Sir Robert, whose daughter is autistic, has been a champion of the rights of autistic people, chairing the APPG on Autism for several years and leading the Government’s review of autism employment.
During his time in government, tensions between the Government and the courts rose. The Supreme Court ruled that both the Government’s Rwanda scheme and the decision to prorogue Parliament in 2019 were unlawful. Sir Robert called on his party to find ways to “preserve the balance within our constitution, rather than creating more flashpoints”, but warned recently that “the rule of law does not mean rule of lawyers.”
As Third Commissioner, he will chair the Mission, Pastoral and Church Property Committee, as well as the Bishoprics and Cathedrals Committee.
The Save the Parish movement quotes Sir Robert on its website: “We are in danger of letting excessive managerialism strangle the life out of our Church. Our parishes are its heart and soul, not top-heavy bureaucracies and virtue-signalling talking shops.”
Welcoming his appointment, the First Church Estates Commissioner, Alan Smith, said: “Sir Robert Buckland’s background as a lawyer and public servant means he is ideally suited to this demanding role, which is central to the Church Commissioners’ role in enabling flourishing parish ministry, and its responsibilities as co-regulator of cathedrals. His wisdom will be invaluable in helping steward the Church of England’s ambitious drive towards net zero in its churches and buildings in a careful and considered manner.”
Sir Robert takes up the appointment on 14 March, succeeding Dr Flora Winfield, who is now the Bishop of Selby.
An honorary lay canon of Bristol Cathedral, Sir Robert is a keen performer of choral music. His Christian faith had “sustained me in difficult moments”, he told Counsel. “I would have struggled without it.”
