Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme funding tracker
DCMS has published a Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme funding tracker showing the amount already allocated and the funds remaining until 31 March 2026. It will be updated fortnightly by EMB. For the 2025/26 financial year, the total budget for the Scheme is £23 million. This funding is allocated to cover both direct grants for eligible claims, and the administrative costs associated with managing the scheme effectively. Additionally, due to unprecedented demand in the 2024/25 funding cycle, a small portion of the 2025/26 budget was allocated to fund all claims submitted before the 31 March deadline – this totalled £469,000. The 2025/26 Scheme will close on 31 March 2026 or once the £23M budget has been reached, whichever is earlier. £5,498,850 has been used to date from the total budget and £16,909,913 remains.
On 7 August 2025, a Press Release from DCMS/Baroness Twycross reported that 37 local heritage sites are to benefit from a £15M grant to “breathe new life into communities across England”. “Heritage buildings are set to benefit from £15 million of funding as part of the government’s ongoing commitment to ensure our heritage is fit for the future”. Five churches were awarded a total of £1,909,579: St Catherine of Siena, Sheffield, £497,615; St John, Goole, £100,000; Bethesda Methodist Chapel, Stoke on Trent, £521,737; St Mary Magdalene, Newark-on-Trent, £151,163; St Mary the Virgin, Somers Town, London, £639,064.
G20 Interfaith Summit in Cape Town
The G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) brings together a coalition of global voices committed to shaping inclusive and ethical policy under the banner of “solidarity, equality and sustainability”. The Forum convenes religious leaders, civil society organizations, government officials, multilateral institutions, and scholars to explore collaborative solutions to pressing global challenges. On 12 August 2025, Mark Hill KC addressed the Forum on Religious Freedom Challenges for Africa.
In his preliminary remarks, he noted:
“Religious communities are notoriously vulnerable both to the overreach of secular government and to discriminatory and oppressive conduct by majoritarian religions. Nowhere is this more evident than in the vast and varied continent of Africa. Freedom of conscience and religion was described by a former President of the European Court of Human Rights as one of the most vital elements that go to make up the identity of believers. But it also constitutes a ‘precious asset for atheists, agnostics and the unconcerned’, because “the pluralism indissociable from a democratic society depends on it”.
His full speaking note can be read here.
Exorcism in the Church of England
On 15 July 2025, Sam Carling (North West Cambridgeshire, Lab), in a written question asked the Second Church Estates Commissioner “how many rites of deliverances have been carried under Church of England deliverance ministry guidance in each of the last 10 years; and how many of these were children”. In response, on 7 August 2025 Marsha De Cordova (Labour, Battersea), said:
“This is not a matter for the National Church Institutions and no data or records on numbers or type of deliverance ministry cases are held centrally. The House of Bishops determines Guidelines for Deliverance Ministry and oversees resources and training for this ministry, but how deliverance ministry teams operate within dioceses is the responsibility of each individual diocesan bishop.
The Church of England has published … information on its website about best practice in this area regarding safeguarding, which includes children, vulnerable adults or where an individual is thought to be suffering from a mental disorder”.
The National Secular Society commented on this question, concluding with a statement from its human rights lead Dr Alejandro Sanchez:
“Telling a child they are possessed by a demon is psychologically harmful. Victims and survivors of spiritual abuse have said as much. Nonetheless, the established church – an arm of the British state – continues to endorse and facilitate the exorcism of children. It should now be transparent about the numbers involved. Preferential treatment for one religious group by the state is misguided in principle. But it is even less justifiable when the Church also promotes harmful practices against children.”
Choir schools
In answer to Bs Prentis of Banbury (Con), who asked whether HMG had held any meetings with the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church regarding the protection of cathedral schools and their choral traditions, Bs Smith of Malvern, Minister of State for Skills, replied as follows:
“Ministers and departmental officials hold regular meetings with both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. The most recent meetings with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education took place earlier this month. There have been no issues or concerns raised about the protection of Cathedral Schools and their choral traditions.”
Transgender issues after For Women Scotland
Not really “law & religion”, but one of the first cases on transgender issues after the Supreme Court’s judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 that words such as “sex”, “male, and “female” in the Equality Act 2010 refer exclusively to biological women and men and do not include transgender individuals even if they hold a Gender Recognition Certificate (“GRC”).
In Haynes v Thomson & Anor (on behalf of the English Blackball Pool Federation) [2025] EWCC 50 HHJ Parker, sitting in Canterbury County Court, held that Ms Haynes, a professional pool player and a trans woman with a GRC, who had been prevented from playing for Kent Women’s A team in the EBPF county competition after the Federation had changed its rules, had not been discriminated against. He concluded that that lesser strength and reach put the average woman at a disadvantage when competing against the average man at English eight-ball pool, and that it was therefore a gender-affected activity [250]. The effect of the decision in FWS was that the claim failed at the first hurdle because there had been no gender reassignment discrimination and must therefore be dismissed [267].
Quick links
- Archdruid Eileen: Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley: Guide to Accepting Second Hand “Gifts” In Church.
- Caroline Gillespie, Scottish Legal News: Reform of child marriage law in Scotland must recognise child rights: argues for setting the legal minimum age for marriage in Scotland at 18.
- House of Commons Library: 2024 King’s Speech: progress of legislation.
- House of Commons Library: What are the Sewel Convention and legislative consent?
- House of Commons Library: What is a proclamation?
And finally…
“Will Medieval Cistercian monks save us from the Chinese mega-embassy?” – an intriguing comment on ‘X’/Twitter from Iain Duncan Smith, MP for Chingford & Woodford, who has had earlier dealings with the Chinese government on other issues. On 14 January 2025, the Foreign and Home Secretaries wrote to the Planning Inspector about the mega-embassy offering conditional support, but asking for some amendments to be made to the Chinese Government’s application including, inter alia, a request for a wall be built around part of the embassy perimeter to enable safe access to the historic ruins (a ruined Cistercian Abbey) on the site. During the Planning Inquiry hearings, the Chinese side said explicitly that they had no plans to build such a perimeter.
However, the problems raised by the new Chinese embassy are far more serious than access to historic ruins and are described in detail in Damian Grammaticas’ piece for the BBC: Hackers, secret cables and security fears: The explosive fight over China’s new embassy in the UK.