“Do you want lies with that?“…
…a feline observation made on X/twitter. Whilst we make no comment on that particular instance, there does appear to have been a significant increase in deliberate misinformation in politically motivated communications following the UK General Election and in the run-up to the US Presidential Election.
“Silent prayer” at abortion clinics
With regard to “silent prayer“, the Public Order Act 2023 was granted Royal Assent on 2 May 2023 and remains unchanged apart from the Commencement Orders 1 to 3. Section 9 (Offence of interference with access to or provision of abortion services) was not in force at Royal Assent – see s.35(5) – and the only “new law” prior to October 2024 is likely to be a further Commencement Order bringing s.9 into force.
The Home Office draft non-statutory guidance on abortion clinic safe access zones concluded on 22 January 2024; however, there has been no subsequent action, and it appears to have been “kicked into the long grass”. The College of Policing and the Crown Prosecution Service have been tasked with issuing guidance for police and prosecutors ahead of 31 October “to ensure there is clarity and consistency with the enforcement of the new offence”.
Weddings law again
Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the MoJ, answered a series of written questions in the House of Lords from Baroness Cox (Crossbench) on weddings law reform as follows:
“We are aware that the Law Commission made recommendations for wholesale change to weddings law in July 2022. These recommendations include recommendation 42, in relation to the creation of offences relating to an officiant dishonestly misleading a couple about the legal effect of a wedding ceremony or failing to disclose that the ceremony they are officiating will not create a valid marriage. We will take the time as a new Government properly to consider the Law Commission’s recommendations and will outline our position in due course.
The Marriage Act 1949 enables religious bodies, alongside the Church of England and the Church in Wales, to conduct legally binding weddings. However, the difficulties which those who have undergone ceremonies which do not qualify as legally binding face when their relationships come to an end is a matter of concern. That is why the Government committed in its 2024 manifesto to ‘strengthen the rights and protections available to women in cohabiting couples’. We will set out the next steps on this manifesto commitment in the near future.”
Parochial Fees
As indicated in our post Parochial Fees – 2025 and 2026, on 18 September 2024 the Office for National Statistics released the data on which the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) for August 2024 are calculated. The Consumer Prices Index, including owner-occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH), rose by 3.1% in the 12 months to August 2024, unchanged from July. These, in turn, will form the basis for the parochial fees in 2025, which the Church of England will publish shortly and will be reported in L&RUK.
Quick links
- Church of England: Net Zero Carbon 2030 Impact Report.
- Home Office, Martyn’s Law Factsheet: Home Office blog post on the details of the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill, “also”, it says “known as Martyn’s Law” – but emphatically not by us.
- Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR): Review of statistics on gender identity: “the Census 2021 gender identity statistics published by ONS do not comply with important quality aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics”.
- Konstantin Skorkin, Carnegie Politika: Ukraine has passed a law banning religious organizations with links to Russia: its main target is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
- David Whincup, Lexology: How low can you go – getting over the bar to workplace protection for your beliefs (UK).