The Church of England’s Faculty Rule Committee has announced a consultation on the operation of the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015.
The Rules were introduced with the intention of simplifying faculty procedures and reducing the burden of administration in areas where it was not serving a useful purpose. They introduced two lists of works that could be undertaken either without a faculty [List A] or, in some cases, following approval by the Archdeacon [List B]. The Rule Committee is now considering revisions to the two Lists. The main interest of the revision will be to increase simplification by adding items to List A and List B. The Committee believes that there is also scope for simplification of the Rules more generally.
There are links to the Rules and the associated statutory guidance here and the online survey is here. The consultation will end on Monday 6 August.
After the consultation closes, all the responses will be considered and summarised for consideration by the Rule Committee between November 2018 and February 2019. Following this, amended Faculty Rules will go to General Synod for consideration in July 2019.
For those wishing to consider their responses before completing the on-line survey, a PDF of all the questions is available here. This will be particularly useful for members of a group who are preparing a joint response.