The Parochial Fees Order 2024

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Parochial Fees Order 2024.

(2) It comes into operation on 1st January 2025.

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

Period for which fees are prescribed

2.  This Order prescribes parochial fees for the period 1st January 2025 to 31st December 2026.

Base figures

3.  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

4.—(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 2025 is the base figure for that matter—

(a) increased by the lower of—

(i) the percentage by which the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for August 2024 is greater than that for August 2023, and

(ii) 5%, and

(b) rounded up to the nearest £1.

(3) The fee payable in the calendar year 1st January to 31st December 2026 is the fee payable for that matter in the preceding calendar year (“Year A”)—

(a) increased by the lower of—

(i) 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

(ii) 5%, 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

5.—(1) Schedule 2 contains incidental provisions that apply in relation to the parochial fees prescribed by article 4.

(2) Article 4 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 Chapter of the cathedral).

The draft of this Order was approved by the General Synod on 26th February 2024.

A.S. McGregor

Registrar of the General Synod

Church House, Westminster

Signed on behalf of the Archbishops’ Council by two authorised officers

S.J. Gallagher

D.P. White

Church House, Westminster

21st March 2024