The M1said Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-six, shall be repealed: Provided always, that the certifying thereunder before the passing of this Act of any place of meeting for religious worship shall, subject to the provisions herein-after contained, have the same force and effect from the time of such certifying as if the same had been duly certified, registered, and recorded, as before the passing of the said Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-six, was required by law, and such Act and this Act had not been passed.
Marginal Citations
Every place of meeting for religious worship of Protestant Dissenters or other Protestants, and of persons professing the Roman Catholic religion, . . . F1 not heretofore certified and registered or recorded in manner required by law, and every place of meeting for religious worship of persons professing the Jewish religion, not heretofore certified and registered or recorded as aforesaid, and every place of meeting for religious worship of any other body or denomination of persons, may be certified in writing to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, through the superintendent registrar of births, deaths, and marriages of the district in which such place may be situate; and such certificate shall be in duplicate, and upon forms in accordance with Schedule A. to this Act, or to the like effect, such forms to be provided by the said Registrar General, and to be obtained (without payment) upon application to such superintendent registrar as aforesaid; and the said superintendent registrar shall, upon the receipt of such certificate in duplicate, forthwith transmit the same to the said Registrar General, who, after having caused the place of meeting therein mentioned to be recorded as herein-after directed, shall return one of the said certificates to the said superintendent registrar, to be re-delivered by him to the certifying party, and shall keep the other certificate with the records of the General Register Office.
Textual Amendments
F1Words repealed by Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1977 (c. 18), Sch. 1 Pt. V
The said Registrar General shall cause all places of meeting for religious worship certified to him under this Act to be recorded in a book to be kept by him for that purpose at the General Register Office; . . . F2; and the certifying to the said Registrar General of any such place of meeting for religious worship of Protestant Dissenters or other Protestants, or Roman Catholics, or persons professing the Jewish religion, and of any place of meeting for religious worship of any other body or denomination of persons, shall, subject to the provisions herein contained, have the same force and effect as if such place had been duly certified and recorded or registered and recorded as before the passing of the said Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-six, was required by law, and such Act and this Act had not been passed.
Textual Amendments
F2Words repealed by Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1977 (c. 18), Sch. 1 Pt. V
Any place of meeting for religious worship heretofore certified and registered or recorded in manner required by law, and which continues to be used for religious worship, save any such place of meeting certified to the said Registrar General under the said M2Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-six, may, at any time after the passing of this Act, be certified in writing to such Registrar General through the superintendent registrar of the district in which such place may be situate, and shall be recorded by such Registrar General in manner herein-before mentioned concerning places of meeting not heretofore certified and registered or recorded.
Marginal Citations
(1)The Secretary of State may by regulations provide for fees to be payable to such persons as may be prescribed in the regulations in respect of the certification to the Registrar General under this Act of a place of meeting for religious worship.
(2)Regulations under this section may—
(a)specify the amount of any fee payable under the regulations, or
(b)set out how such a fee is to be determined.
(3)Subsection (4) applies where the regulations provide for a fee to be payable to a superintendent registrar.
(4)The regulations may provide for such part of the fee as may be specified by or determined in accordance with the regulations to be payable by the superintendent registrar to the Registrar General in such circumstances as may be set out in the regulations.
(5)The regulations may provide for the reduction, waiver or refund of part or all of a fee whether by conferring a discretion or otherwise.
(6)Regulations under this section must be made by statutory instrument.
(7)Regulations under this section may—
(a)make different provision for different cases;
(b)provide for exemptions from any of the provisions of the regulations;
(c)contain such consequential, incidental, supplemental and transitional provision as the Secretary of State considers appropriate.
(8)A statutory instrument containing regulations under this section is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.]
Textual Amendments
F3S. 5 substituted (12.7.2016) by Immigration Act 2016 (c. 19), s. 94(1), Sch. 15 para. 6; S.I. 2016/603, reg. 3(w)
Whenever any place of meeting for religious worship which may have been certified under the said Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-six, or this Act, shall have wholly ceased to be used as a place of meeting for religious worship, the person or one of the persons who so certified or last certified the same (as the case may be), or the trustee or one of the trustees for the time being of such place of meeting, or the owner or occupier or one of the owners or occupiers thereof, shall, if then resident within the superintendent registrar’s district within which such place shall be situate, forthwith give notice to the Registrar General, through such superintendent registrar, that such place has so ceased to be used as a place of meeting for religious worship, such notice to be in a form in accordance with the Schedule B. to this Act, or to the like effect, and which form shall be provided by the said Registrar General, and may be obtained (without payment) upon application to the said superintendent registrar; and the person giving such notice shall sign the same in the presence of such superintendent registrar, or of his deputy, who shall forthwith transmit the same through the General Post to the Registrar General at the General Register Office.
The said Registrar General shall, at such periods as [F4the Secretary of State] shall from time to time in that behalf order or direct, make out and cause to be printed a list of all places of meeting which have been certified to and recorded by him under the said Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-six, or this Act, and the record of which has not been cancelled as herein-after provided, and shall state in such list the county and superintendent registrar’s district within which each of such places of meeting is situated, and the religious denomination to which the persons for the time being certifying it belong, and shall cause a copy of such list to be sent to every superintendent registrar of births, deaths, and marriages in England; and such list shall be open at all reasonable times to all persons desirous of inspecting the same . . . F5
Textual Amendments
F4Words in s. 7 substituted (3.4.2008) by The Transfer of Functions (Registration) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/678). art. 5(1), {Sch. 2 para. 2}
F5Words repealed by S.I. 1968/1242, Sch. 2
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C1S. 7: functions transferred (1.4.1996) by S.I. 1996/273, art. 3(1), Sch. 1 para. 2
C2Functions transferred (3.4.2008) by The Transfer of Functions (Registration) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/678). art. 3(1), {Sch. 1 para. 2}
Whenever it shall appear to the satisfaction of the said Registrar General, from any notice which shall have been given to him as aforesaid, or otherwise, that any certified place of meeting for religious worship has wholly ceased to be used as such, the said Registrar General shall cause the record of such certification to be cancelled, and shall give public notice of the cancellation thereof, by advertisement in some newspaper circulating within the district in which such place of meeting is situated, and in the London Gazette, and shall also expunge the name of such place from the list of certified places so to be printed by him as aforesaid; and after such cancellation and publication thereof as aforesaid such place shall cease to be deemed duly certified as by law required, and shall so remain until it shall have been duly certified afresh under this Act.
Every place of meeting for religious worship certified to the said Registrar General under the said Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her Majesty, chapter thirty-six, or this Act, and recorded by him as aforesaid, so long as the same continues to be bonâ fide used as a place of religious worship, and the record of the certification thereof has not been cancelled as herein-before is provided, [F6is, so far as it is a charity, to be treated for the purposes of section 31(3) of the Charities Act 2011 (institutions required to be excepted from registration under that Act) as if that provision applied to it]; and where a building recorded and used as aforesaid is so excepted, there shall be excepted with it—
any forecourt, yard, garden, burial ground, vestry, or caretaker’s house, in respect of situation connected with, and held upon the same trusts as, the building so recorded; and
any Sunday-school house or other land or building which is certified by an order of the [F7Charity Commissioners], made upon the application of one or more of the charity trustees, to be held upon the same trusts as the building so recorded or upon the like trusts, and to be in respect of situation so connected with or held or used in connection with that building that it cannot conveniently be separated from that building.
In this section “building” includes part of a building.
F8[[F9(2)Section 337 of the 2011 Act (provisions as to orders under that Act) applies to any order under subsection (1)(b) as it applies to orders under that Act.]]
Editorial Information
X1Unreliable marginal note.
Textual Amendments
F6Words in s. 9(1) substituted (14.3.2012) by Charities Act 2011 (c. 25), s. 355, Sch. 7 para. 5(1)(a) (with s. 20(2), Sch. 8)
F7Words in s. 9(1)(b) substituted (14.3.2012) by Charities Act 2011 (c. 25), s. 355, Sch. 7 para. 5(1)(b) (with s. 20(2), Sch. 8)
F8S. 9(2) added (1.8.1993) by 1993 c. 10, ss. 98(1), 99(1), Sch. 6 para. 1(3)
F9S. 9(2) substituted (14.3.2012) by Charities Act 2011 (c. 25), s. 355, Sch. 7 para. 5(2) (with s. 20(2), Sch. 8)
Nothing in this Act shall affect or be construed to affect the churches or chapels of the [F10Church of England] , or the celebration of divine service according to the rites and ceremonies of the said [F10Church of England] , by ministers of such church, in any place hitherto used for such purpose, or being now or hereafter duly consecrated or licensed by any archbishop or bishop or other person lawfully authorized to consecrate or licence the same.
Textual Amendments
F10Words substituted from 1.8.1871 by virtue of Irish Church Act 1869 (c. 42), s. 69
The Registrar General, . . . F11, shall, with respect to any place certified to him as a place of meeting for religious worship, the record whereof remains uncancelled, give to any person demanding the same a certificate, sealed or stamped with the seal of the General Register Office, that at the time or respective times in such certificate in that behalf stated the place therein described was duly certified and duly recorded as required by this Act, and that at the date of such sealed or stamped certificate the record of such certification remained uncancelled; and every such sealed or stamped certificate, if tendered in evidence upon any trial or other judicial proceeding in any civil or criminal court, shall be received as evidence of the said several facts therein mentioned, without any further or other proof of the same.
Textual Amendments
F11Words repealed by S.I. 1977/1861, art. 4
All sums to be received by or on account of the Registrar General in pursuance of this Act shall be accounted for and paid in manner directed by [F12the M3Registration Service Act 1953], with respect to sums received by him or on his account under the provisions of [F12the M4Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953] ; and all expenses incurred by the said Registrar General, or by any superintendent registrar, or registrar, with his sanction, and acting under his direction or authority, in carrying this Act into execution and making known its provisions, shall be deemed to have been incurred in carrying on the business of the General Register Office, and be defrayed accordingly.
Editorial Information
X2Unreliable marginal note.
Textual Amendments
F12Words substituted by virtue of Interpretation Act 1978 (c. 30), s. 17(2)(a)
Marginal Citations
Textual Amendments
F13S. 13 repealed with saving by Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1977 (c. 18), s. 2, Sch. 1 Pt. XII
This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Ireland.