Sentencing guidelines
On Wednesday, the Government introduced the Sentencing Guidelines (Pre-sentence Reports) Bill: in effect, to override the new guidelines for England and Wales brought in by the Sentencing Council. In the accompanying press release, the Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, said:
“These guidelines create a justice system where outcomes could be influenced by race, culture or religion. This differential treatment is unacceptable – equality before the law is the backbone of public confidence in our justice system.
I will change the law to ensure fairness for all in our courts, and I’m grateful to the Sentencing Council for delaying implementation while Parliament considers the Bill” [emphasis added].
The aim is to get the Bill through Parliament as quickly as possible.
Preventing lawful burial
Robert Bush has been charged with 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, 30 counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of theft from charities, one count of fraud and a further count of fraudulent trading. The charges come after a major investigation into Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull, from which Humberside Police removed 35 bodies and a quantity of ashes. He has been released on bail and is due to appear at Hull Magistrates’ Court on 25 June.
Legislation
On Thursday, various pieces of legislation received Royal Assent, including the Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Act 2025, the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, the Chancel Repair (Church Commissioners’ Liability) Measure 2025 and the Church Funds Investment Measure 2025.
The sole purpose of the Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Act is to make it possible for Lady Elish Angiolini LT DBE PC KC FRSE, a practising Roman Catholic, to take her place as His Majesty’s Lord High Commissioner at the Kirk’s forthcoming General Assembly, notwithstanding the bar in the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (offices withheld from Roman Catholics). While the Bill was awaiting Royal Assent, Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds, Con) asked the Minister for the Cabinet Office what information his Department held on the eligibility of Lady Elish for the position of Lord High Commissioner when her appointment was announced. To which the Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Douglas Alexander, replied:
“Following the announcement in December of last year that Lady Elish Angiolini was to be appointed as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, it became clear that there is a legal restriction against a Catholic person being appointed to the role.
The Church of Scotland (Lord High Commissioner) Act 2025 has been passed by both Houses of Parliament with cross-party support and has received Royal Assent. This legislation removes the historical legal restriction and will ensure that Lady Elish can take up the role.”
Which suggests that the whole exercise arose from an oversight.
“Net zero”, church heating, and the consistory courts
The recent Church of England Press Release on taking action on climate change prompted a further review in the series of posts on “Net zero”, church heating, and the consistory courts; in this fifth update, we looked at the twenty-three consistory court considerations of heating during the period of the Faculty Jurisdiction (Amendment) Rules 2022 which came into force 1 July 2022, and the twenty-one prior to that date. Of these, ten included only a peripheral reference to heating. Whilst a few broad conclusions may be drawn, a detailed analysis of this information will be published at a later date.
Consistory court determinations
At only four days into April, we received an email from the Ecclesiastical Law Association which began, “Having already circulated nine judgments this week, I am sure you will have received more than you can possibly cope with in one week. Unfortunately…Here are what I hope will be the final two of this week”. As ever, we are grateful to the Revd Raymond Hemingray for his summaries of the cases on the ELA website. These will form the basis of our monthly, annual round-ups of cases, and the occasional stand-alone post, such as that on Re Exhumation Of A Baby [2024] ECC Exe 1; the mother, ‘M’, of a baby girl, ‘X’, who died at or shortly after her birth in 2022, sought a faculty to exhume and reinter the remains of her baby, who was survived by a twin sister.
The above decisions also included Re All Saints Rainford [2025] ECC Liv 1, in which a retrospective faculty was granted to authorize the display of illuminated symbols on the church tower at certain times of the year, subject to conditions as to limits on the timing of the illumination and to the petitioner first obtaining planning consent. On the latter point, the planning officer stated that in relation to the “advertisement” nature of the displays, this was considered in the context of layout, appearance, design and local amenity. Wood Ch noted that the two significant aspects of the planning advice related to the heritage impact of the lighting [12] and the impact on neighbouring amenities [13].
In an earlier case, Re All Saints Chelsworth [2024] ECC SEI 4, Gau Ch refused to grant a petition for altering the terms of the faculty granted in 2011, concluding at [27] “[w]ere this petition to be unopposed it would have passed the without any difficulty. The issue here is now one of neighbourliness”. On the technical considerations, in 2021 the Institution of Lighting Professionals updated its Guidance, The Reduction of Obtrusive Light (GN01/21).