11/01/2021
Judge David Turner QC has been named as the new Deputy Chair of the Chair of the Clergy Discipline Commission replacing Sir Mark Hedley, who retired in December 2020.
Judge Turner was appointed a QC in 2000, a Circuit Judge and deputy High Court Judge in 2004, and divides his judicial year between criminal and family work in Chelmsford and London.
A former churchwarden, he is a Reader in the Diocese of London, acting as a consultant to the Diocese’s Ministry Development Review.
The Chair of the CDC is Dame Sarah Asplin who started the role in January 2019.
The Chair and Deputy Chair of the Commission also serve respectively as President of Tribunals and Deputy President.
Notes to editors
- The Clergy Discipline Commission is constituted under section three of the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003.
- The Commission oversees the disciplinary system in respect of clergy of the Church of England.
- Its principle functions are to issue codes of practice and general policy guidance to those who exercise clergy discipline functions and to give general advice to disciplinary tribunals, bishops and archbishops as to the penalties which are appropriate in particular circumstances.
- The President of Tribunals, and in her place the Deputy President, exercise certain judicial functions in the course of disciplinary proceedings – these include determining applications for permission to make a complaint out of time, reviewing decisions by bishops to dismiss complaints, hearing appeals by clergy against suspension, and deciding when a complaint should be referred to a disciplinary tribunal for a full hearing.