Gift Aid
The Government has confirmed that it intends to amend the rules on Gift Aid to protect the current status of membership subscriptions to charities. In answer to a written question from Stuart Andrew (Daventry, Con) on 7 July, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, said this:
“The Government will legislate to amend the rules concerning Gift Aid due to implications of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCCA) 2024. This Act introduces new protections for consumers who take out subscription contracts. The Government will amend existing Gift Aid legislation before the DMCCA comes into force so that charities can continue to claim Gift Aid while complying with new consumer protections.”
Non-disclosure agreements
On 8 July 2025, the Government announced that changes are to be introduced to the Employment Rights Bill, which is due to return to the Lords next week, that will void NDAs used by employers against employees who have been subjected to harassment, including sexual harassment or discrimination, in the workplace. However, these changes will have limited effect in relation to clergy, most of whom are not regarded in law as employees. Nevertheless, this week an article in the Church Times provides an example of a former employee of Leicester diocese who said that she felt “silenced by the diocese”, which had, she said, prevented her from warning others about the “abusive, deeply unhealthy” behaviour of her former colleague, who was later convicted of stalking a churchwarden.
Prayers in Parliament
An article in The House magazine on an interview with Lucy Powell, Leader of the House, on the work of the Modernisation Committee, which included a review of elements of parliamentary language such as “bills” and “divisions”, also reported a submission to her committee from the National Secular Society calling for prayers to be removed from formal parliamentary business. This was dismissed, as Parliament remains “attached to the Church of England, and that’s sort of important, so we’re not looking at prayers”.
She also noted that a secular alternative to “prayer cards”, in order to reserve seats in the Chamber, already exists. However, Humanists UK believes that this is in reference to cards MPs who are in a Select Committee can use in order to reserve their seats for the day, even if they don’t attend prayers. An MP who does not have a Committee meeting must still attend prayers to reserve a seat.
And a “no” to Irish bishops in the Lords
On 1 July, Andrew Rosindell (Romford, Con) asked the Minister for the Cabinet Office “if he will reintroduce Lords Spiritual from the Church of Ireland to the House of Lords”. In a response on 8 July the Paymaster General, Nick Thomas-Symonds said:
“Bishops of the Church of Ireland previously sat in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual, from the coming into force of the Union with Ireland Act 1800 until the disestablishment of the Church in 1871. Given the Church of Ireland is no longer part of the established church, there are no plans to reintroduce Church of Ireland bishops to the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual.
The Church of Ireland was disestablished through the Irish Church Act 1869 which came into force on 1 January 1871. But apart from prompting the above well-documented history lesson, we were puzzled as to the motive behind Andrew Rosindell’s question.
Coming to a Commissary Court soon?
On 12 July 2025, the Daily Mail ran the story Church bids to exhume head of Catholic martyr Sir Thomas More – five centuries after it was put on spike when he was executed which states that St Dunstan’s Church in Canterbury is seeking to exhume More’s remains in time for the 500th anniversary of his death in 2035. [The Mail article is based upon a report in The Times(£)]. Some sources indicate that around £50,000 in donations will be required for the ambitious project. It is understood that the congregants at St Dunstan’s church were told about the plans on 6 July 2025, “but the church will need to get permission from the Commissary Court in Canterbury before any work can go ahead”. A statement read:
“What the [parochial church council] PCC has agreed, subject to all the right permissions being granted, is to exhume and conserve what remains of the relic, which will take several years to dry out and stabilise.
“‘We could just put it back in the vault, maybe in a reliquary of some kind, or we could place the reliquary in some sort of shrine or carved stone pillar above ground in the Roper chapel, which is what many of our visitors have requested. We’d really appreciate your ideas and thoughts.”
The PCC appears to have changed is view since June 2023 when it was reported to have “unanimously turned down [a] proposal or any possibility of preserving or exposing the relic, preferring that the remains stay ‘undisturbed’.”
We would not wish to second guess the deliberations of the Commissary General on the applicability of Re Blagdon Cemetery and related considerations, but if there are interested parties outside the PCC (as there seem to be), it may be to the PCC’s advantage to ensure that these are included in the petition, and they might possibly instigate the petition themselves. See the similar case of Re St Leonard Beoley [2015] Worcester Const Ct, Charles Mynors Ch, on which we reported here.
Quick links
- Adrian Allman, FIEC: Food Safety and Standards in Church: although not “law and religion”, an informative post on an area of church life which is not normally covered, (though the re-use of jam jars did generate interest in the early days of the blog).
- Kaya Burgess, The Times: Lord Evans: No all-white, male longlist for next Archbishop of Canterbury: in which she interviews the Chair of the Crown Nominations Commission.
- HM Government: UK approach to freedom of religion or belief: Lord Collins’ speech, July 2025.
- Ian Gomersall, A Retired Rector’s Reflections: Denying Communion?, from a CofE point of view, (but not “notorious offenders“).
- Genevieve Holl-Allen, Daily Telegraph, Anglican church in Istanbul bars MPs from entry over abortion vote, (£).
And finally…
Nothing whatsoever to do with either law or religion, but readers in the UK may like to know that the Government has announced that it will be sending a test Emergency Alert to mobile phones across the UK at around 15:00 on 7 September.