Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
As noted previously, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which updates key aspects of data protection law, has received Royal Assent. Changes include clarifying how personal information can be used for research; lifting restrictions on some automated decision making; setting out how to use some cookies without consent; allowing charities to send people electronic mail marketing without consent in certain circumstances; requiring organisations to have a data protection complaints procedure and introducing a new lawful basis of recognised legitimate interests.
The Act provides the Information Commissioner’s Office with new powers, including the ability to compel witnesses to attend interviews, request technical reports, and issue fines of up to £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
The ICO has published information to support organisations and the public as these changes are introduced. It includes:
- an outline what the Act means for organisations;
- an outline of what the Act means for law enforcement agencies;
- a detailed summary of the changes for data protection experts;
- the ICO’s new and planned guidance web page setting out what guidance to expect and when;
- an outline of how the ICO will continue its regulatory work as the Act is implemented; and
- a guide for the public on how the Act will affect them.
Archbishop of Wales
Further to the recent Church in Wales Press Release, Statement on Bangor Cathedral Visitation Report implementation, on 23 June and the earlier statements concerning the Visitation, a further statement was issued on the evening of 27 June 2025 by the Archbishop of Wales announcing his forthcoming retirement as Archbishop and as Bishop of Bangor on 31 August. This was accompanied by statements on behalf of the Bench of Bishops of the Church in Wales and by Professor Medwin Hughes, Chair of the Representative Body of the Church in Wales.
The Regulations relating to the Archbishop and Diocesan Bishops are in Chapter V of the Constitution, which states that within thirty days after a vacancy arises in the archbishopric, the senior Diocesan Bishop must summon each member of the Archbishop’s Electoral College to a meeting to be held not less than fourteen and not more than thirty days after the date of such summons: i.e. the meeting must be held not later that 26 August.
Scotland: consultation on the current law on the dissolution of SCIOs
The Scottish Government is consulting on the current law relating to the dissolution of Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations – some of which have religious purposes – which would include making changes to existing regulations. The consultation also seeks views on changes to SCIO dissolution applications, removal from the Scottish Charity Register, and restoration processes. The proposals come from recommendations from a 2019 working group, although Covid-19 and the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023 delayed implementation. Depending on views submitted, the Scottish Government plans to introduce amendment regulations to the Scottish Parliament in early 2026. The amendments will be made under sections 64 and 103 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.
Further guidance for anyone who is considering setting up a charity, particularly those interested in becoming a SCIO, and those existing charities which are considering changing their legal form to a SCIO, can be found here. It will also be useful to advisers to charities and anyone working with charities, such as funding organisations and local authorities.
The consultation opened on 20 June 2025 and closes on 11 September 2025. Responses can be submitted here.
Gypsies and Travellers in Scotland
On Wednesday, the Scottish First Minister made a statement to Parliament in which he made a formal apology for the historical treatment of Gypsy/Traveller individuals and families – the so-called “Tinker Experiments” – in Scotland. The statement followed the publication of research by the Third Generation Project at St Andrews University.
The Conveners of the successor committees of the Church of Scotland to those agencies and boards of the Church involved in work with Gypsy/Traveller communities in the 20th Century also issued an apology acknowledging their deep regret for “the harm that came to them as a result of actions by the Church in the past”. [With thanks to David Bradwell.]
Northern Ireland: consultation on dissolution of marriage and civil partnership
The Northern Ireland Department of Finance has launched a consultation on the law on divorce and the dissolution of marriage and civil partnerships.
The current legislation on divorce, the Matrimonial Causes (NI) Order 1978, allows for divorce on grounds of fault (unreasonable behaviour, adultery and desertion) or no-fault (evidenced by separation). The dissolution of a civil partnership similarly comprises fault and no-fault grounds, though adultery is not a ground for the dissolution of a civil partnership. The options included in the consultation are:
- no-fault divorce evidenced by separation, as in the Republic of Ireland;
- administrative no-fault divorce, similar to the law in England and Wales, under which one party can apply for a divorce which cannot be challenged; and
- no change to the current, substantive law.
The consultation opened on 23 June and ends on 26 September 2025. For further information and to participate in the consultation online, visit Consultation on Divorce and the Dissolution of Civil Partnerships, here.
Church of England General Synod Summer 2025
The General Synod of the Church of England meets in York July 2025, and the Press Release has been accompanied by the publication to the papers for the meeting:
Quick links
- Church of England: Safeguarding Structures Policy Lead: the C of E is seeking to appoint a Safeguarding Structures Policy Lead for a 3-year fixed-term contract expiring to work with the NCI Legal team on developing policy for the new delivery structures through the Project Board designing Operational Delivery of Church Safeguarding.
- Environment Agency: Protecting groundwater from human burials: updates the link to the Environment Agency’s consultation on standard rules permits for cemetery developments; consultation now closed and awaiting publication of the response and outcome. (25 June 2025).
- Andrew Hambler, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion: Should the Equality Act be Amended to Make Explicit Reference to ‘Conscience’?
- House of Bishops: Zoom Meeting, 11 March 2025: “1.2 … Zoom meetings should be for the important but less contested business with in-person meetings for more complex items needing prayerful discernment”. Nevertheless, at 8pp the notes are more informative than those for earlier meetings.
- Nicholas Reed Langen, Church Times: Surrogacy serves the wealthy, not the poor: on a recent Family Division case in which a Mr and Mrs K, both aged 72, obtained a parental order in respect of a baby boy, B, born as a result of surrogacy: see K & Anor v Z & Anor [2025] EWHC 927 (Fam).
And finally…
West Somerset Free Press reports on plans to install solar panels on the roof of the Grade I-listed St Dubricius Church in Porlock, in the Exmoor National Park. The PCC wants to site the panels along the roof of the south pitch of the nave in a concealed central valley.
Which reminds us of the failed attempt to install solar panels on the roof of St Anne’s Church, Ings, in the Lake District National Park, when both the national park authority and the planning inspectorate, on appeal, turned down the planning application. The local community in Ings is still trying to get the decision reversed. Perhaps Porlock PCC will have better luck…