According to the statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Ecclesiastical Judges, Legal Officers and Others (Fees) Order 2026 was made on 11 July 2026, laid before Parliament on 31 July 2026 and comes into force on 1 January 2027. The Order was made by the Fees Advisory Commission under section 86 of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure 2018 and was approved by the General Synod, as the Measure requires. The immediate effect is to revoke and replace the 2025 fees order. This is a replacement charging framework for ecclesiastical courts, legal officers and connected office-holders across the Church of England, rather than a rewrite of the underlying court or discipline procedures.
Across articles 3 to 15, the Order sets or updates fees for faculty petitions, consistory court proceedings, provincial appeals, cathedral cases, doctrine and ritual proceedings, clergy discipline cases, election appeals and a small number of annual or miscellaneous payments. The schedules are arranged by forum and office-holder, including chancellors, registrars, judges, Vicar-Generals and persons appointed to act in place of the President of Tribunals. A notable drafting point appears in article 2. Where the Order specifies an amount payable to a chancellor or registrar, the office-holder may decide that a lower fee should be charged, provided it does not exceed the stated amount. For practitioners, that means some scheduled figures operate as ceilings rather than automatic fixed charges.
In one jurisdictional adjustment, article 1(3) states that references to the consistory court in the diocese of Canterbury are to be read as references to the commissary court, and references to the chancellor as references to the Commissary General. That preserves the existing Canterbury structure while keeping the wider fee scheme consistent across dioceses. For most parishes and church buildings, the clearest figure in the Order is in article 3. A £247 fee becomes payable to the diocesan board of finance on submission of a faculty petition relating to a building, part of a building, its curtilage, or an object or structure fixed to it and subject to faculty jurisdiction under section 43(1) of the 2018 Measure.
Article 3 also gives diocesan boards of finance room to waive all or part of that £247 charge where those responsible for the building, or another person with a substantial connection to it, already make financial contributions to diocesan funds. No fee is payable under this article for buildings subject to a sharing agreement or for a chapel forming part of Lambeth Palace. In practice, diocesan officers will need a clear and consistent approach to waiver decisions before the new regime begins. Article 4 deals with a narrower administrative task but will matter to registrars and patrons. Fees for searching the register of patrons, preparing extracts and supplying certified copies are tied to the Solicitors' (Non-Contentious Business) Remuneration Order 2009, except where that work is already covered by an annual fee payable to the diocesan registrar.
The remainder of the Order distributes fees across the main ecclesiastical forums. Article 5 covers consistory court proceedings, article 6 covers appeals from consistory courts and provincial directions, articles 7 and 8 cover cathedral review and Vicar-General proceedings under the Care of Cathedrals Measure 2011, and articles 9 and 10 cover doctrine, ritual and related review cases under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963 and the 2018 Measure. Articles 11 to 14 then address clergy discipline and related appeals. The legislation.gov.uk text shows that proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 continue to attract judge and registrar fees, while a person appointed under section 4(4) of that Measure to act when the President of Tribunals cannot do so is paid £240 for certain procedural decisions and £463 for specified review, referral and case-to-answer decisions. Summary election appeals under the 2026 General Synod election rules are also brought within the fee structure.
The Order repeatedly requires time certification where charges are based on hours worked. For a series of items across the tables, the judge, chancellor, Vicar-General or registrar must certify the time spent before the relevant fee is payable. That matters for audit, internal billing and any later dispute about the amount charged. Payment responsibility also varies by case type. Some fees are payable by the party bringing or requesting the relevant step, some fall to the Archbishops' Council, some are paid by an Archbishop and reimbursed by the Church Commissioners, and some may be assigned by order of a Commission of Review. Administrators will need to match each proceeding to the correct funding route rather than treat the Order as a single charging rule.
Article 16 imports a familiar safeguard from the secular courts. Anyone who would qualify for an exemption, reduction or remission under the Civil Proceedings Fees Order is entitled to an equivalent outcome under this ecclesiastical fees order, with applications routed to the registrar. Where relief is granted, the diocesan board of finance must meet the amount that would otherwise have been payable, and it must also cover the registrar's reasonable costs of dealing with the application. Articles 17 and 18 add two further operational points. Fees other than the article 3 faculty petition fee may be increased to recover reasonable travel, subsistence, accommodation and hearing costs, and VAT is payable on top where chargeable. With the 2025 Order revoked and the new scheme taking effect on 1 January 2027, diocesan boards, registrars, clergy advisers and those preparing faculty or discipline cases have a clear window to update forms, guidance and budgets.