The legal aspects of processing a faculty incur a legal charge in accordance with The Ecclesiastical Judges, Legal Officers and Others (Fees) Order 2022. The DBF will pay the faculty lodging fees in most cases for faculties lodged from 1 January 2021 onwards.
List A and List B applications do not incur a fee.
Faculties where the DBF will not pay the faculty fee are:
- Exhumation petitions
- Grave space reservations
- Non-conforming memorial petitions
- Applications where a third party (ie not the PCC or incumbent) would be obliged to pay, for example works to a closed churchyard where the local council would pay
- Variations to works permitted by an existing faculty
In those cases where the third party pay the faculty fee the DAC Secretary will advise you when payment is due, what the rate is in your particular case, and who to make payment to.
Petition forms lodged for exhumations, grave space reservations and non-conforming memorials should be accompanied by payment.
The faculty fee as from 1 January 2023 is £317.00
PLEASE NOTE:
It is possible that additional costs could be incurred if the Registrar and Chancellor are required to undertake significant additional work on any given faculty application over and above what is normally required. For example:
- the application becomes complicated
- objections are received or there is a requirement for a court hearing or written representations.
- the faculty is for a particularly large re-ordering scheme
Any additional costs incurred will be payable by the petitioners.
For information and as stipulated in the current fee order, the Registry fee for general correspondence is £153.00 per hour plus VAT and the Chancellor’s fee for preparing and writing judgments is £139.00 per hour. Please be aware that costs can very quickly accrue.
The full schedule of fees payable to the Chancellor and Diocesan Registrar from 1st January 2023 can be examined in The Ecclesiastical Judges, Legal Officers and Others (Fees) Order 2022 (legislation.gov.uk)