Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 1990

Statutory Instruments

1990 No. 1440

ECCLESIASTICAL LAW, ENGLAND

FEES

Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 1990

Made (Approved by the General Synod)

9th July 1990

Laid before Parliament

17th July 1990

Coming into force

1st January 1991

We, the Fees Advisory Commission constituted in accordance with the provisions of section 4 of the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986(1) in the exercise of the powers conferred by section 5 do hereby order as follows:—

1.  The Fees appearing in the Schedule to this Order are established. The tables of the Schedule contain particulars of the Annual Fees which are to be received, after the commencement of this Order, by the legal officers named in Table I of the Schedule (hereinafter referred to as “Table I”) in respect of the carrying out by them of the duties of their offices specified in the Appendix hereto (hereinafter referred to as “the Appendix”) and by the legal officers named in Table II of the Schedule in respect of the carrying out by them of the duties of their offices.

2.  The Fees established and set out in the second column of Table I of the Schedule are to be paid by the diocesan board of finance. The Fees established and set out in the third column of the Table I and in Table II of the Schedule are the liability of the diocesan bishop or archbishop, subject to the provisions of section 8 of the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986.

3.  The Fees established and set out in Tables I and II of the Schedule to the Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 1989(2) shall no longer be payable.

4.  The diocesan registrar shall perform the duties and provide the professional services set forth in the Appendix in consideration of the annual fee set out in Table I to this Order for his diocese and shall not be entitled to receive any other remuneration for such duties or services save as provided by this order.

5.—(a) Subject to the provisions of this paragraph nothing in this Order shall preclude a diocesan board of finance from agreeing to pay an additional fee to a diocesan registrar by way of annual fee or retainer (hereinafter called a “supplementary annual fee”) which is in addition to the annual fee payable under Table I.

(b) An agreement made under sub-paragraph (a) above shall be expressed to be an agreement for a payment by way of supplementary annual fee.

(c) An agreement made under sub-paragraph (a) above shall be in writing. The period for which the agreement is to run shall be stated in the agreement. In the absence of any such statement the agreement shall remain binding until determined by not less than three months' notice on either side.

(d) The body responsible for paying a supplementary annual fee shall be the diocesan board of finance.

6.  A fee specified in the Schedule to this Order may be increased by a sum for reasonable expenses of travel, subsistence and accommodation.

7.  Where Value Added Tax is chargeable in respect of the provision of any service for which a fee is prescribed in this Order (including any fee specified in paragraph 4 of the Appendix) there shall be payable in addition to that fee the amount of the Value Added Tax.

8.  This Order may be cited as the Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 1990 and shall come into operation on the first day of January 1991.

R. B. Gibson

A. Black

T. A. C. Coningsby

D. Lovelock

B. M. M. O'Connor

Dated this sixth day of June 1990

Derek Pattinson

Secretary General

Approved by the General Synod the 9th day of July 1990

APPENDIX THE SCOPE OF THE ANNUAL FEE

1.  Subject to the restrictions contained in paragraphs 2 and 3 hereof, the professional services provided by the diocesan registrar in respect of the annual fee paid to him under this Order shall include:—

A. Giving of advice to the Diocesan Bishop, Suffragan Bishops, Archdeacons, Chairmen of the Houses of the Diocesan Synod, Rural Deans and Lay Chairman of Deanery Synods, Incumbents and all other clergymen, beneficed or licensed in the diocese, on any legal matter properly arising in connection with the discharge of their respective ecclesiastical or synodical offices, and giving of advice to chairmen and secretaries of diocesan boards, councils and committees on any legal matter properly arising in connection with the business of the respective boards, councils and committees;

B. Acting as Registrar to the Diocesan Synod and attendance at its meetings;

C. Attendance at the Bishop’s Council and Standing Committee if required by that Committee;

D. Occasional attendance at meetings of diocesan boards, councils and committees for the purpose of giving advice on specific matters;

E. Maintaining of all such records of the diocese as are customarily kept by the diocesan registrar including the making of entries therein, and the making of searches and reports on matters recorded in the Registry or in documents held in the diocesan muniment room at the request of persons or bodies referred to in sub-paragraphs A and F hereof;

F. Giving of advice to churchwardens and secretaries of PCCs on any legal matter properly arising in connection with their duties or official business;

G. Giving of advice to any person concerned in or with the administration of an election under the Church Representation Rules on any question properly arising under those Rules;

H. Giving of advice to a bona fide enquirer concerning the law of marriage, baptism, confirmation and burial of the dead according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England;

I. Giving of advice to persons considering or proposing to make an application for a legal aid certificate for financial assistance from the ecclesiastical legal aid fund maintained under section 1 of the Church of England (Legal Aid and Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 1988;

J. Acting as Registrar to the Consistory Court of the diocese except in so far as a separate fee is prescribed by Order made under the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986 or except in so far as this Order provides that a fee calculated in accordance with the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 1972 is payable;

K. Attendance at episcopal visitations;

L. Drafting or preparing, approving, engrossing and registering of all notices, licences, consents, permissions, instruments and other documents required by law or customarily used in connection with the following matters—

• Ordination

• Certification of Ordination

• Presentation to a Benefice

• Commission for Institution or Collation

• Admission to Freehold Office

• Certification of Institution or Collation

• Licensing of Non-Residence, for legalising house of residence

• Resignation

• Under the Pastoral Measure 1983

  • admission to office of rector for term of years

  • licensing of vicar in a team ministry or for extending term of years of rector or vicar in a team ministry

  • designation of a parish centre of worship under Part II of the Measure for the purposes of the Marriage Act 1949 and other purposes

  • Licensing of clerks in holy orders and deaconesses

• Delegation by bishop of episcopal and archidiaconal powers under the Dioceses Measure 1978 and Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 1983

• Episcopal visitations

• Appointment of sequestrators and matters relating to sequestrations

• Provision of agreements to form a Conventional District

• Consent to hold preferment under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963

• Licensing of unconsecrated churches or places of worship (including temporary licences)

• Ordering of Licensed Chapel to come under Faculty Jurisdiction;

M. Acting in relation to the following matters on the instructions of the Diocesan Bishop, Suffragan Bishops, Archdeacons or on the instructions of a diocesan board or council whose business properly includes such matters:

• Consecration of a Church and Burial Ground or a Church without a Burial Ground

• Consecration of a Cemetery or Burial Ground

• Preparation and Registration of documents required under the Consecration of Churchyards Act 1867 for the consecration of additions to churchyards

• Licensing of a Building for Marriages

• Notification under section 2 of the Benefices (Transfer of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1930 (in relation to a guild church in the City of London);

N. Work in connection with the following matters:

• Maintaining the register of patrons (“the register”) under Part I of the Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986 (“the the Measure”) as required by section 1(1) of the the Measure

• Searches in and making of extracts from the register, enquiries as to entries in the register and supplying certified copies of entries in the register, where the search, extract or enquiry is made or the certified copy is requested by or on behalf of a person or body referred to at the commencement of sub-paragraph M or by the designated officer (within the meaning of section 7(5) of the the Measure)

• Receipt and issue of notices and notification of representations under section 3(3) and (4) of the the Measure.

2.  The provisions of paragraph 1 hereof shall be restricted as follows:

(a) Where the Registrar receives a request for advice on any matter properly falling within paragraph 1 sub-paragraphs A, E, F, G and H—

(i) he shall not be required to correspond with a third party involved in the enquiry

(ii) before giving advice he shall first consider whether the matter on which his advice is sought is one which can conveniently be dealt with by the diocesan secretary or some other person or body in the diocese rather than by himself

(iii) if a legal dispute arises between parties who are both church officers he may decline to advise either party, but he shall be at liberty to advise both parties with a view to helping them to resolve their dispute if in his judgment it is desirable to do so;

(b) The Registrar shall not be required to attend meetings of diocesan boards, councils and committees except upon an occasional basis to give legal advice on specific matters. (He may attend such meetings regularly to give general advice and assistance if requested to do so by the board, council or committee in question and in that case he shall be entitled to be separately remunerated for this work.)

3.  The provisions of paragraph 2(a) hereof shall not apply to advice and assistance given as legal secretary or diocesan registrar to the Diocesan Bishop, or as diocesan registrar to Suffragan Bishops or Archdeacons.

4.  For the avoidance of doubt work in connection with the following matters shall not fall within the scope of the annual fee but a fee calculated in accordance with the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 1972 shall be payable—

(i) Conveyancing and drafting of documents other than those referred to in paragraph 1 sub-paragraphs L and M hereof;

(ii) Matters relating to individual diocesan, parochial or educational trusts or to individual pieces of diocesan glebe property;

(iii) Litigation;

(iv) Acting as secretary to the Vacancy in See Committee constituted under The Vacancy in See Committees Regulations 1977 on a vacancy in the see of the Diocesan Bishopric;

(v) Deposition or deprivation consequent upon proceedings in secular courts, including the following—

(a) Service of notice on priest or deacon of intention to depose him from Holy Orders under rule 49(1) of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (Discipline) Rules 1963 (the fee is payable by the bishop)

(b) Carrying out a duty or exercising of a discretion following proceedings referred to in section 55 of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963 (the fee is payable by the bishop);

(vi) Work undertaken on behalf of a person who is not an official in the diocese or on behalf of a body which is not a diocesan board or council in connection with the following matters—

• Consecration or licensing of a public cemetery, a private burial ground or a private chapel

• Licensing the chapel of an extra-parochial place for a marriage of persons living or residing within that place

• Notification under section 2 of the Benefices (Transfer of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1930 (in relation to a guild church in the City of London) (the fee to be paid in such proportions as may be agreed between the transferor and the transferee, and in the absence of such agreement the fee to be paid by the transferee);

  (vii)

  Work carried out in relation to the register of patrons under Part I of the Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986 where a fee calculated in accordance with the Solicitors' Remuneration Order 1972 is payable under the Ecclesiastical Judges and Legal Officers (Fees) Order for the time being in force made under section 6 of the Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1986;

  (viii)

  Acting as Chapter Clerk (whether or not the Diocesan Registrar holds the office of Chapter Clerk) and in particular doing the following work, namely work in connection with the following matters:—

• Installation to a Deanery

• Installationto a Canonry or Prebend (whether Residentiary or Honorary) or to an Archdeaconary

• Admission to a Minor Canonry

• (These fees are payable out of Capitular Revenues)

5.  If any disbursements other than expenses specified in paragraph 6 of this Order are incurred in the course of providing any of the professional services in paragraph 1 above the diocesan registrar shall be entitled to charge for them separately.

SCHEDULE

TABLE I

ANNUAL FEES PAYABLE TO DIOCESAN REGISTRARS SUBSTITUTED FOR TABLE I OF THE SCHEDULE TO THE LEGAL OFFICERS (ANNUAL FEES) ORDER 1989

Diocese	Payable by Diocesan Board of Finance	Liability of the Diocesan Bishop	Total
Bath and Wells	16,379	9,619	25,998
Birmingham	8,521	6,682	15,203
Blackburn	10,482	9,313	19,795
Bradford	6,314	8,327	14,641
Bristol	8,396	6,581	14,977
Canterbury	10,896	8,622	19,518
Carlisle	11,576	8,000	19,576
Chelmsford	17,047	9,964	27,011
Chester	12,006	8,149	20,155
Chichester	13,416	9,850	23,266
Coventry	7,618	7,555	15,173
Derby	10,772	8,821	19,593
Durham	10,663	9,311	19,974
Ely	11,711	9,137	20,848
Exeter	17,041	9,961	27,002
Gloucester	12,260	8,740	21,000
Guildford	7,334	7,687	15,021
Hereford	12,534	9,471	22,005
Leicester	11,433	7,950	19,383
Lichfield	16,184	10,263	26,447
Lincoln	19,263	7,817	27,080
Liverpool	8,880	7,857	16,737
London	16,751	10,882	27,633
Manchester	11,496	10,207	21,703
Newcastle	8,781	6,304	15,085
Norwich	20,329	8,390	28,719
Oxford	22,596	7,384	29,980
Peterborough	12,098	10,069	22,167
Portsmouth	5,958	8,670	14,628
Ripon	8,076	6,944	15,020
Rochester	9,133	7,422	16,555
St. Albans	12,423	9,098	21,521
St. Edmundsbury & Ipswich	15,515	10,041	25,556
Salisbury	16,507	9,357	25,864
Sheffield	8,153	7,037	15,190
Southwark	12,079	10,661	22,740
Southwell	10,603	8,979	19,582
Truro	9,427	6,948	16,375
Wakefield	7,884	7,470	15,354
Winchester	11,961	9,245	21,206
Worcester	8,008	7,084	15,092
York	16,254	10,024	26,278

TABLE II

FEES PAYABLE TO THE PROVINCIAL REGISTRARS SUBSTITUTED FOR TABLE II OF THE SCHEDULE TO THE LEGAL OFFICERS (ANNUAL FEES) ORDER 1989

	Fee
	£
1.  Annual fee for Joint Registrars of the Province of Canterbury	30,000
2.  Annual fee for Registrar of the Province of York	15,000

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order increases the annual fees for diocesan and provincial registrars fixed by the Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 1989.

(1)

1986 No. 2.

(2)

S.I. 1989/1244.