The Parochial Fees and Scheduled Matters Amending Order 2019

PART 1 Citation, commencement and interpretation

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Parochial Fees and Scheduled Matters Amending Order 2019.

(2) It comes into operation on 1st January 2020.

(3) In this Order “the Measure” means the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986.

PART 2 Amendment of Scheduled Matters

Amendment of Part 1 of Schedule A1 to the Measure

2.—(1) Part 1 of Schedule A1 to the Measure (table of matters to which Parochial Fees relate) is amended as follows.

(2) In the heading “FUNERALS AND BURIALS OF PERSONS AGED 16 YEARS OR MORE” for “16” substitute “18”.

(3) Under that heading, under “B. No service in Church”—

(a) after “Funeral service in crematorium or funeral service (including burial of body or burial or other lawful disposal of cremated remains) in cemetery” insert—

• “Funeral service in premises belonging to funeral director, whether taking place before or after burial or cremation

• Cremation immediately preceding or following on from funeral service in premises belonging to funeral director”.

(b) after “Burial of cremated remains in churchyard or other lawful disposal of remains (committal only)” insert—

• “Burial of body, or burial or other lawful disposal of cremated remains, in cemetery (committal only)”.

Amendment of Part 2 of Schedule A1 to the Measure

3.—(1) Part 2 of Schedule A1 to the Measure (explanatory notes on Part 1) is amended as follows.

(2) In paragraph 1, omit “In relation to the fee for a burial in a churchyard,”.

(3) For the cross-heading to paragraph 2 substitute “Burial of child”.

(4) In paragraph 2, for “16 years” substitute “18 years”.

(5) In paragraph 6, for the definition of “cemetery”, substitute—

““cemetery” means any burial ground other than a churchyard”.

PART 3 Parochial Fees

Period for which fees are prescribed

4.  This Part prescribes parochial fees for the period 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2024.

Base figures

5.  In this Part “the base figure” for a matter listed in the first column of the table in Schedule 1 is the amount specified in respect of that matter in the second column of the table for the diocesan board of finance or (as the case may be) in the third column for the parochial church council.

Prescribed fees

6.—(1) Parochial fees are payable to a diocesan board of finance and to a parochial church council in respect of each of the matters listed in the first column of the table in Schedule 1 as follows.

(2) The fee payable in the calendar year 1st January to 31st December 2020 is the base figure for that matter—

(a) increased by the percentage by which the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for August 2019 is greater than that for August 2018, and

(b) rounded up to the nearest £1.

(3) The fee payable in each subsequent calendar year is the fee payable for that matter in the preceding calendar year (“Year A”)—

(a) increased by the percentage by which the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for August in Year A is greater than that for August in the calendar year preceding Year A, and

(b) rounded up to the nearest £1.

(4) But where there is no increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), the percentage for the purposes of paragraph (2) or (3) is to be treated as zero.

Supplementary

7.—(1) Schedule 2 contains incidental provisions that apply in relation to the parochial fees prescribed by article 6.

(2) Article 6 is subject to section 1(8) of the Measure (which provides that where the relevant parish is a parish of which a cathedral is the parish church, any fees which would, apart from that subsection, be payable to the parochial church council or to the diocesan board of finance, are instead payable to the corporate body of the cathedral).

The draft of this Order was approved by the General Synod on 21st February 2019.

J. Philips

Clerk to the Synod

Church House, Westminster

The Common Seal of the Archbishops’ Council was affixed on 29th March 2019.

D.P. White

R. Norval

Church House, Westminster