This week (11-15 March), Bishop Martyn was the duty bishop in the House of Lords. This role involves saying prayers at the start of each day before parliamentary business in the House of Lords begins. It also means being on hand to respond to urgent business – like ministerial statements or urgent questions.
Bishop Martyn took part in Oral Questions (parliamentary questions that are put to a government minister by a member of the House to respond to in-person) on every day that the House was sitting.
On Monday, Bishop Martyn asked Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Care, whether the Government had assessed the impact of the two-child limit on benefits on the health and wellbeing of children and young people. The two-child limit means that households can only receive child tax credit or the child element of Universal Credit for their first two children, if their third or subsequent children were born after 1 April 2017. It has been described as the one of the biggest drivers of rising child poverty, and if abolished, the Child Poverty Action Group estimate that 250,000 children would be pulled out of poverty overnight. This could have a significant impact here in Leicester, where 2021/22 figures show 2 in 5 children were living in poverty (up from 30% in 2014/15)
On Tuesday, Bishop Martyn asked Lord Evans of Rainow if he agreed that the Government should consider the need for restorative breaks for unpaid carers and the role for employers in supporting unpaid carers to stay in work in a future national care strategy. He referenced the Archbishops’ Commission on Reimagining Care which, based on conversations with dozens of unpaid carers, recommended that there should be a ‘new deal for carers’ including restorative breaks, financial support, and support from employers including paid leave and the right to request flexibility.
Later in the day, he asked Lord Cameron, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if the Government would revisit the International Development Committee’s report on Debt Relief and evidence from the Jubilee Debt Campaign and Make Poverty History, given the “weighty moral debt” we owe as a country to many low- and middle-income countries which have seen the level of their external debt double since 2010 – reaching $9 trillion in 2022.
Bishop Martyn also spoke in support of two amendments in the Committee Stage of the Victims and Prisoners Bill. These two amendments, which were co-sponsored by the Bishop of Gloucester, would ensure aftercare, especially psychiatric support, to people imprisoned for public protection (Although IPP sentences were abolished in 2012, thousands of people subject to such a sentence are still in prison, and rates of psychological distress amongst this population are particularly high).
On Wednesday, Bishop Martyn asked Baroness Barran, the Lords Spokesperson for Equalities, if the Government would increase statutory paternity leave in line with other European countries, both in terms of the length of time allowed and the amount of statutory pay, given the proven benefits on family bonds and gender equality. This followed research by Pregnant Then Screwed that of more than 500 new fathers and secondary parents who did not take their full paternity or parental leave allowance, 70% said it was because they could not afford to.
On Thursday, Bishop Martyn raised the issue of Christians’ freedom of religion in India with Lord Ahmed of Wimbledon, Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He noted that the number of acts of religiously-motivated violence against Christians in India has increased almost every year since 2014 – from 147 to 687 in 2023, and last year, over 500 Christians were arrested under anti-conversion laws, including a couple and their pastor during their wedding on the grounds the wedding was a “conversion event”. Bishop Martyn asked the minister to condemn this state of affairs and to take steps to defend freedom of religion and belief in India. Lord Ahmed assured Bishop Martyn that the Government was committed to ensuring freedom of religion and belief, and it is hoped that other Lords Spiritual will pursue this matter further in the coming weeks.