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After a recent conversation with a constituent about the callous thieves who pulled down the steeple at St John’s in Birkby in 2008, on 13 October 2011 Barry Sheerman MP raised the issue of metal theft from churches and highlighted the cost to parish this caused to the Church Estates Commissioner, who agreed that this is an issue that the Government needs to revisit.

The exchange took place as follows:

6. Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): What resources the Church Commissioners plan to make available to churches that have been subject to theft or vandalism.

The Second Church Estates Commissioner: I shall place in the Library a copy of the Church Buildings Council’s report on metal theft, which concludes that the 1964 Act is no longer fit for purpose.

Mr Nuttall: As my hon. Friend will be aware, the theft of metal from churches is costing them an estimated £1 million a month. Has he yet had any indication whether the recommendation made in the Church Buildings Council’s working party report of March this year—that cash payments by scrap yards for metals such as lead should be prohibited—will be accepted?

Tony Baldry: We are working very closely with Ministers to achieve that, and we have a meeting in the very near future with the noble Lord Henley to try to take it forward. I think that there is general agreement among everyone who has examined the matter that we need to take cash out of the transactions. It is too easy at present for people to strip churches of lead at night, go to a scrap yard the next day, get cash and walk away. The people who are suffering from that are in the most vulnerable communities in our society.

Mr Sheerman: The hon. Gentleman will know of St John’s in Birkby, which had its steeple pulled down by people stripping the lead from the roof, and of the immense cost that the parish incurred. I certainly agree that we need to amend the scrap metal legislation, but we also need to consider the level of compensation and insurance premiums.

You can read the whole debate by clicking here

(Image of St John’s, Birkby taken from the Huddersfield Examiner)