Reforming the law on cohabitation

The Law Society Gazette reports that the Government is to consult on cohabitation reform. Asked by the House of Commons Justice Committee for a timetable on reform, Lord Ponsonby, Minister of State at MoJ, said that a formal consultation will be issued this year “to build public consensus on what cohabitation reform should look like” and that the Government did not share the previous administration’s view that cohabitation reform must wait until existing work on marriage and divorce law was concluded.

Further action on clergy criticized in Makin Review

On 25 February, the Church of England issued the Press Release Conclusion of Makin Review four-step process, which lists the clergy against whom disciplinary proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure will be brought. In respect of all those under the authority or oversight of the Church of England not listed here but criticised in the Makin Review, the process has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to meet the threshold for instituting disciplinary proceedings at this time. There are two priests criticised in the report whose actions have not yet been reviewed as they are subject to other live, ongoing processes.

The Press Release concludes: “The National Safeguarding Team can make no further comment on these cases whilst the CDM proceedings are under way”. Likewise, L&RUK will not comment until the outcome of the CDM proceedings are in the public domain or a formal statement on the other cases is made by the Church of England.

Safeguarding in the Church in Wales

The recent news on safeguarding in the Church in Wales in relation to Anthony Pierce, who was Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, will be seen as further evidence of the need for mandatory reporting and independent safeguarding. Further, in a letter to the cathedral chapter of Bangor that was leaked to Nation Cymru and reported in the Church Times, it emerges that the Archbishop of Wales has ordered a visitation into Bangor Cathedral after safeguarding concerns, which he describes as serious and requiring urgent attention. The details of the safeguarding concerns are not known,  but a serious incident report has been made to the Charity Commission.  [With thanks to Religion Media Centre.]

Safeguarding scrutiny in the Commons

Tomorrow, there will be a Commons adjournment debate on Safeguarding in the Church of England.

Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme

We understand that DCMS has commissioned an independent research consultancy to undertake an evaluation of the LPWGS. As part of this, a short online survey will be conducted to help the consultants understand the experiences of individual places of worship. We will post a link to the survey when it becomes available.

Neutral citation, Southwark judgment

In order to resolve two Southwark consistory court judgments which carried the same neutral citation, Ray Hemingray (ELA) has reissued and renamed the second as Re The Ascension Blackheath [2020] ECC Swk 6; even though this is out of chronological sequence with other judgments in 2020, it has the potential for causing the least amount of collateral damage on organizations who maintain data bases (such as L&RUK) and other who have references this particular case. We have updated our references accordingly.

Index: Clergy Discipline Measure

Last week, we noted that a new heading, Clergy discipline, CDM and CCM, had been added to our General Index and, as of Wednesday, the heading on the Clergy Discipline Measure had been populated with links to posts on L&RUK and on the Church of England website.

Quick links

• BBC: Cousin marriage: What new evidence tells us about children’s ill health: a long read on a controversial issue for traditional practice in some religious communities.
• Paul Jennings & Thérèse Rankin, Bates Wells: Navigating the expression of protected beliefs and social media use in the workplace: lessons from Higgs v Farmor’s School.
• Leo Kirby, UK Human Rights Blog: Preaching hate: free speech, religion and the Human Rights Act: on Sleeper v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2025] EWHC 151 (KB), in which an appeal against the decision of HHJ Saggerson to dismiss a claim against the Metropolitan Police by a street preacher arrested for displaying anti-Muslim signs was dismissed.