Church of England Parochial Fees 2022

The Church of England’s Tables of Parochial Fees from 1 January 2022* (“the Table”), prepared by the Archbishops’ Council, are now available on the C of E website on its page of Life events parochial fees and guidance. This includes: an A3 table, an A4 table, and as a short A4 summary. The basic fees are listed below, but readers are advised to visit the Church’s website to read the accompanying notes. An explanation of the basis for the calculation of these fees and the timing of their publication is below. A section relating to fees for special services is also included.

* Parochial Fees from 1 January 2023 are summarized here.


Marriages

The following costs are set by the Church of England nationally and are the same for every church. The basic legal fees include the cost of the vicar, the church, calling the banns, a banns certificate, the marriage certificate, lighting and all administration.

  • Publication of banns: £32
  • Certificate of banns, if required: £16
  • Marriage service: £480

Not covered are extras such as the costs of choir, organist, bellringers, verger &c., for which new advice was issued in February 2019. These extras are summarized here.


Funerals

A Church of England funeral is not necessarily in a church. The minister can lead the whole funeral service in a different place, or a church service can be incorporated into part of the day wherever the funeral takes place. Further information is here. The fees are:

Service in Church

  • Service (in church, cemetery, or crematorium): £206
  • Burial in churchyard, preceding or following on from service in church: £331
  • Burial in churchyard, on separate occasion or without service in church: £360
  • Burial in cemetery or cremation immediately preceding or following on from service in church: £30

No service in Church

  • Funeral service (including burial of body) at graveside in churchyard, £428.
  • Funeral service (including burial or other lawful disposal of cremated remains) at graveside in churchyard, £240.
  • Funeral service at crematorium, or funeral service (including burial of body or burial or other lawful disposal of cremated remains) in cemetery, £206.
  • Funeral service in premises belonging to funeral director, whether taking place before or after burial or cremation, £206.
  • Cremation immediately preceding or following on from funeral service in premises belong to funeral director, £30.
  • Burial of body in churchyard, not following service at graveside (committal only), £360.
  • Burial of cremated remains in churchyard or other lawful disposal of cremated remains (committal only), £172.
  • Burial of body, or burial or other lawful disposal of cremated remains, in cemetery (committal only), £30.

Certificate issued at time of burial

  • Burial certificate, if required: £16.

Notes

B2. Funerals & Burials states

i) No fee is payable in respect of a burial of a still-born infant, or for the funeral or burial of a person dying within eighteen years after birth.

ii) The fee for a burial in a churchyard or cemetery on a separate occasion applies when burial does not take place on the same day as, or on the day before or the day after, a service in church.

iii) The certificate issued at the time of burial is a certified copy of the entry in the register book of burials kept under the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978.

Monuments

These normally range from £49 to £150 depending on the type and size of the monument required. Note 2 in the Table defines ‘monument’ as including headstone, cross, kerb, border, vase, chain, railing, tablet, plaque, marker, flatstone, tombstone or monument or tomb of any other kind.


Baptisms

There is no fee for a service of baptism.

  • Certificate of baptism, if required: £16.

Searches in church registers

  • For the first hour (inclusive of one copy of an entry in certain registers): £32.
  • For each subsequent hour or part of an hour £32.
  • Additional copies of entries: £16.

Access to such records is subject to the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978, S20: Searches of certain register books.


Notes

Calculation of parochial fees

At its February session on 21 February 2019, General Synod approved the Parochial Fees and Scheduled Matters Amending Order 2019, which will make provision for parochial fees for the years 2020 to 2024, inclusive. This is reported in our post, Church of England Parochial Fees – Changes for 2020 to 2024.

Extras

The fees shown in the table do not include charges for heating, the services of a verger, music (e.g. organist, choir), bells, and flowers, which are fixed by the Parochial Church Council. In the case of a marriage service or a funeral service in church, any costs and expenses incurred in respect of routine administration (including arranging dates and times and the making of entries in registers), making the church available and lighting it are included in the fee prescribed as payable to the Parochial Church Council.

Our  post, New advice on “extras” for weddings and funerals, (March 2019) summarizes the current advice on the additional costs not included in the statutory fees.

Calculation of costs of wedding

Examples are given in the Church of England’s The Cost of Church Weddings and include the 2022 costs for where a couple marry away from where they live.


Special services

The Table of Parochial Fees for 2022 states [emphasis added]:

Statutory fees are only prescribed for matters in respect of which parishioners have a legal right. Not all services come into this category, for example funerals where there is a period of more than 48 hours between the funeral service and the cremation and between the cremation and the disposal of ashes. This also applies to special services such as memorial services and services of blessing and dedication following a civil marriage.

The Archbishops’ Council recommends that, where a memorial service is on a similar scale to a funeral service, or a service of blessing and dedication following a civil marriage or a renewal of marriage vows is on a scale equivalent to a wedding service, the PCC fee should be based on the statutory fee for the service, with the PCC receiving the equivalent of the combined DBF and PCC fee”.

The Church of England’s A Guide to Church of England Parochial Fees (updated 2015, URL dated 2017) states:

26. A charge may also be made for special services (e.g. memorial services or services of prayer and dedication after a civil marriage). It is recommended that the charge for a special service should, where possible, be based on the parochial fee for the equivalent funeral or marriage service”.


Updated, 9 December 2022

Cite this article as: David Pocklington, "Church of England Parochial Fees 2022" in Law & Religion UK, 23 November 2021, https://lawandreligionuk.com/2021/11/23/church-of-england-parochial-fees-2022/

4 thoughts on “Church of England Parochial Fees 2022

  1. I want my wife’s ashes to be buried at crematorium where my wife’s funeral took place . Could you tell me how much it would cost

    • Thanks for your query Leonard. Unlike the Church of England’s costs for a service which are set nationally, the costs for the burial or scattering of ashes are determined locally, and the crematorium should be able to advise. Regards, DavidP

  2. Am I correct in saying that when there is more than 48 hours between a cremation and the burial of ashes in a churchyard (which is usually the case), and the burial takes place without a minister (as defined) being present, there is (a) no statutory fee, (b) no DBF entitlement to a fee, (c) the PCC concerned would normally charge a fee based on both elements in the table (i.e. £190 in 2023), and (d) the PCC could vary that fee at its discretion? Thanks, David.

    • On my reading of the Table, apart from the issue of a certificate at the time of burial, for which there is a fee of £16 which is payable to the PCC, in all other cases a payment of a statutory fee to the DBF is indicated.

      For the “burial of body, or burial or other lawful disposal of cremated remains, in cemetery (committal only)”, which appears to be the case you describe, the statutory fee to the DBF is £30. DavidP

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