Places of Worship Renewal Fund: updates

Projects already underway: The Historic Religious Buildings Alliance has drawn attention to the fact that in Year 1 of the recently-launched Places of Worship Renewal Fund (PWRF), a limited amount of funding will be available for “projects that have lost anticipated match funding”. Historic England’s website says this:

“Will the fund support projects already underway?”

In Year 1 only, a limited amount of funding will be available to projects that have lost anticipated match funding. This will be provided under stream 1 (grants from £10,000 to £50,000) for projects that began on or after 1 October 2025 and are due to complete by 30 September 2026, provided that they:

• • Meet all other PWRF eligibility criteria
  • Have not previously received funding through the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme.

To apply for funding in year 1 for works already in progress or completed, please email PWRF@HistoricEngland.org.uk and you will be sent a separate application form to complete and return.”

All other PWRF eligibility criteria must be met, and the HRBA is encouraging a careful reading of the website before pursuing this possibility.

Expressions of Interest: The deadline for submitting Expressions of Interest for grants from the first round of the Fund has been extended to Sunday 14 June 2026. A second round will follow soon after in September 2026. The latest date by which applicants will receive a response to their Expression of Interest is now 3 July.

Full applications: The deadline for making a full application has been extended from 16 July to 5 pm on Sunday 26 July. [With thanks to the Historic Religious Buildings Alliance.]

Data (Use and Access) Act 2025: implementation

New regulations under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, which come into operation on 19 June 2026, require all organisations to handle data protection complaints expeditiously and to have a data protection policy in place. Under the regulations, they must:

• designate a data protection lead;
• give people a way of making data protection complaints to the organisation;
• acknowledge receipt of complaints within 30 calendar days of receiving them;
• without undue delay, take appropriate steps to respond to complaints, including making appropriate enquiries, and keep people informed; and
• without undue delay, tell people the outcome of their complaints.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has published guidance on the new requirements, here. Presumably, larger religious organisations will already have appropriate procedures in place; smaller ones, however, might not.

Upcoming consultation on weddings law

In reply to a question from Ben Lake (Ceredigion Preseli, Plaid), Catherine Atkinson, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the MoJ said this:

“The Government has announced its intention to reform weddings law when parliamentary time allows. The reforms reflect a commitment to making marriage law fairer, simpler, and more modern, whilst also protecting the solemnity and dignity of marriage. The current aim is that the consultation on the reform of weddings law in England and Wales will be launched before the summer recess, which commences on 16 July 2026.”

Update regarding the appointment of the next Bishop of Bristol

On 27 May, the Church of England announced that “The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) for Bristol met in April and nominated a candidate for the See of Bristol. The individual has since decided, with regret, to withdraw from the nomination for family reasons”. A separate announcement was made by the Diocese.

Inevitably, social media was quick to question why two names had not been supplied to the CNC, to which Madeleine Davies of the Church Times quickly responded: “…In 2019, standing orders were changed to relieve CNCs of the requirement to provide a second name ‘in the light of the fact that the second name is very rarely needed‘”, GS 2144. Readers will recall that on 17 February 2025, it was reported that the individual nominated to be the next Bishop of Durham had withdrawn from the process, for which the reasons were unstated. Further, the initial considerations of the CNC for the Sees of Carlisle and Ely failed to nominate a candidate.

In a recent post on 14 April, Stephen Parsons noted that there were:

“nine diocesan episcopal posts that are vacant or to become vacant by the summer.  Two further diocesan posts are in temporary abeyance (Lincoln and Salisbury) while the current incumbents await the result of disciplinary enquiries that are being undertaken. That would possibly bring the total number of diocesan vacancies to 11. This total means that around 25% of the senior episcopal posts in England are currently in or about to enter a temporary vacancy”.

Quick links:

• Hilary Aldred and Virginia Henley, Lexology: What should charities be doing now given the forthcoming changes to employment law?
• Shaun de Freitas, Australian Journal of Law & Religion: Freedom of Religion in Communities of Legal Scholarship: A Christian Perspective.

And finally…

An English-language Bangladeshi newspaper reports that the life of a buffalo that allegedly bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the current President of the US, and which had been sold by the breeder to a customer for sacrifice during the feast of Eid-ul-Adha, will be spared after a special intervention by the Ministry of Home Affairs. This time, you really couldn’t make it up…