Law and religion roundup – 19th January

The Listed Place of Worship Grant Scheme yet again

As almost all readers in the UK will know, the current Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme runs out at the end of the current financial year unless renewed. On Tuesday, the Bishop of St Albans asked HMG, “following Historic England’s publication of the latest Heritage at Risk Register, what plans they have to ensure adequate support for listed historic buildings”. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Baroness Twycross, replied that the Government was

“committed to protecting the historic environment for the benefit of present and future generations. DCMS and its arm’s-length bodies deliver funding to the heritage sector, including £8 million last year to rescue buildings on the Heritage at Risk Register. In 2024, 124 historic places from the register were saved, bringing treasured heritage assets back to life. Some 150 buildings were added, which highlights the need for continued support for our most vulnerable heritage”.

The Bishop of St Albans pointed out in a supplementary that the Scheme helps to fund

“a group of buildings that host hundreds of thousands of weddings, baptisms and funerals, right at the heart of their communities—and 80% of those buildings host some 31,000 social action projects, such as warm spaces and food banks. Will the Minister ask her ministerial colleagues whether they would be prepared to answer the correspondence from the Church of England on the future of this scheme? Would she personally be willing to meet my right reverend friend the Bishop of Bristol and her team to discuss this as a matter of urgency?”

Baroness Twycross said that she would be very happy to meet the Bishop of Bristol. And would follow up the letter from the Church of England.

Lord Swire (Con) noted that post-Brexit, the UK could now set VAT “at whatever level we like” and urged the Government to look as a matter of urgency at having parity between restoration and new build, “or at least look again at trying to reduce the costs of restoration for our built heritage, which is among our greatest national assets”.

In several recent written replies, DCMS has said that an announcement will be made “soon”.

Makin: a busy week in the Church of England

This week there have been a number of important safeguarding/post-Makin developments in the Church of England and these are covered in our posts:

In addition, on 17 January it was announced that Rt Hon Sir Stephen Males is to be the new President of Tribunals. The President will continue to be assisted by the Deputy President, His Honour David Turner KC.

Arches Court lecture, 26 March 2025

Following a celebration of Choral Evensong at Temple Church, the Historical Societies of Inner Temple and Middle Temple will host a lecture on the Arches Court by Prof Norman Doe, KC (Hon), Director of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff Law School and Academic Bencher, Inner Temple. He will be followed by the Rt Worshipful Morag Ellis, KC, Dean of the Arches Court, Bencher, Gray’s Inn, who will then deliver a lecture outlining the statutory basis that begets the present-day judicial authority of the Court. Booking is via the Inner Temple website;  those who are not members of the Inner Temple should scroll below the members’ login box and click Add Ticket.

Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Act 2025

The Lords Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extension) Act 2025 was given Royal Assent on Wednesday. It extends the provisions of the 2015 Act until 18 May 2030.

Burial and cremation

The Law Commission consultation paper and summary were published on 3 October 2024; the consultation closed on 9 January and the Commission is now analysing responses before making its final recommendations to Government. In the meantime, readers may be interested in the paper Legislating Sanctity: Protecting the Graveyard in Medieval England by Sara M Butler, The King George III Professor in British History at Ohio State University. With its links to early canons and cathedral statues, the paper provides a comprehensive background to issues such as Keeping Sacred Space Sacred and Keeping out the Riff-Raff: Who gets a Christian Burial? 

Quick links

And finally…

Reports The Times, “Richard Susskind, a former technology adviser to the senior judiciary, tells Times Law that ‘If we curated enough legal data, then the AI systems could greatly help us to improve access to justice at home and strengthen the positioning of English law internationally’.”

Well, yes: it would be a good start if ChatGPT and the like were up to date on the case-law: see, for example, our brief experiment in legal blogging using AI.

Updated: 19 January 2025 at 14:57.

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