Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was introduced in the House of Commons on 16 July and has been scheduled for a second reading on 11 September. Last week, the Prime Minister indicated that the Government remains neutral on the question of assisted dying and on the passage of the bill, stating that it was vital that every view be respected. In his letter to  Ministers, he confirmed that, as is the convention for issues involving conscience, collective responsibility would be set aside, with frontbenchers free to vote or abstain as they wanted. An Equality Impact Assessment of the Bill was published on 28 August.

Attacks on Jewish community ambulances

On Friday, Hamza ⁠Iqbal, Rehan Khan, Judex Atshatshi and Saif Ali pleaded guilty  to a charge of destroying or damaging property being reckless whether life would be endangered. They destroyed four ambulances belonging to the Jewish volunteer emergency service, Hatzola, in an arson attack that caused about £1m of damage.  Cheema-Grubb J ordered pre-sentence reports for the four. A fifth defendant, Subhan Ahmed, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender and will be tried at the Old Bailey on 27 January.

England: Places of Worship Renewal Fund

We understand from DCMS that Round 2 of the window for Expressions of Interest [EOI] in the Fund opens on Friday 4 September 2026 and the deadline for submissions is Friday 2 October at 5 pm. Historic England will not accept Expressions of Interest submitted outside this window, and applicants who submitted an EOI after Round 1 closed will need to reapply. Further information and guidance on the application process will be available through the Historic England website: Places of Worship Renewal Fund | Historic England.

In response to feedback from Round One, the EOI window has been increased to four weeks to give applicants more time to prepare their EOIs, and the guidance has been clarified and amended. DCMS says that applicants do not have to use the full word allowance for every question: at the EOI stage, the important thing is to provide basic information and show why the project is eligible for PWRF, and anyone who is in any doubt about that is welcome to contact the regional Historic England office to talk it through.

Those invited to prepare full applications will receive additional detailed guidance and support, so that they can submit them between 26 October and 18 November.  Funding decisions are anticipated in January 2027.

Scotland: maintaining church buildings

In reply to a written question in the Scottish Parliament from Julie MacDougall (Mid Scotland and Fife, Reform UK) asking about financial assistance to the Church of Scotland for the maintenance and upkeep of its church buildings, Simita Kumar, Minister for Equalities and International Development, said this:

“The Scottish Government recognises the important role that church buildings play as places of worship and as valued community assets. Responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of Church of Scotland buildings rests with the Church of Scotland and its congregations.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Scotland’s Places of Worship Fund announcement by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) on 18 August 2026. This new pilot scheme for 2026-27 will provide up to £1 million to help eligible listed places of worship across Scotland recover VAT costs associated with repair and conservation works.

The Fund has been developed in direct response to the closure of the UK-wide Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme and is expected to open for applications in autumn 2026.

The Scottish Government and HES have worked closely to explore options to ensure that Scotland’s listed places of worship are not disproportionately affected by the withdrawal of the UK-wide scheme. This pilot scheme will help assess demand and gather evidence to inform consideration of future arrangements.

The Scottish Government continues to engage with faith and belief organisations, heritage bodies and other partners on issues affecting places of worship, including the sustainability and preservation of historic church buildings.”

Quick links:

• Gladys Ganiel, Solange Lefebvre and Kerstin Radde-Antweiler (eds), Journal of Religion in Europe: a special issue on Religion and Covid-19.

• Callum Martin and Andy Silvester,  The Times: A grave problem: why London is running out of space for burials.

And finally…

The Religion Media Centre reported that Vanity Fair had put Pope Leo on its “best dressed” list, after he was pictured wearing his papal cassock with Nike trainers and a baseball cap. Vanity Fair says: “What the people in this list have in common is that when it comes to personal style, they have it in spades — that and a singular point of view.” On Pope Leo, it explains: “Even prior to the papacy, Leo, FKA Father Bob, took his modest cream cassock to heavenly heights by pairing them with Nikes”. And on his fashion claim to fame, it says: “Leo has kept his sense of wry casualness, sometimes sporting baseball caps”.