The Fees Advisory Commission has made the Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 2026, which resets the fee framework for Church of England legal officers from 1 January 2027. Signed by the Commission on 17 June 2026, made on 11 July 2026, laid before Parliament on 31 July 2026 and approved by the General Synod under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure 2018, the instrument is a governance order as much as a pay order. Its main purpose is to fix the 2027 annual fees for diocesan registrars and provincial registrars, while drawing a clearer line between work covered by those annual payments and work that remains separately chargeable.
Legislation.gov.uk shows that Schedule 1 sets the annual fees and that Schedule 2 defines the professional services included within the diocesan registrar's annual fee. The Order also revokes the Legal Officers (Annual Fees) (No. 2) Order 2025, so the 2026 instrument becomes the operative framework for the 2027 year. For dioceses, the practical question is not only the size of the annual fee but the allocation of cost. The Order divides responsibility between diocesan finance bodies and senior office-holders, which matters for budgeting, reimbursement and audit records.
Article 3 is the key payer provision. The second column of Table 1 is payable by the diocesan board of finance, while the third column of Table 1 and the fees in Table 2 are payable by the diocesan bishop or archbishop. The source text also notes that section 86(6) of the 2018 Measure requires sums paid by a bishop or archbishop under this regime to be reimbursed by the Church Commissioners. In practice, that means the first payer and the final funding route are not always the same.
Schedule 2 gives diocesan registrars a broad base of work within the annual fee. That includes legal advice to bishops, archdeacons, clergy, diocesan synod officers, deanery officers, churchwardens and parochial church councils on matters arising from their ecclesiastical or synodical roles. It also includes acting as registrar to the diocesan synod, attending the bishop's council and standing committee if required, maintaining registry records, carrying out searches and reports, and answering bona fide enquiries on marriage, baptism, confirmation and burial under Church of England law. The annual fee also covers a large volume of standard document work. The Schedule includes preparation, approval and registration of instruments connected with ordination, presentation to benefices, institution or collation, licences, non-residence, team ministry arrangements, parish centres of worship, sequestrations, conventional districts and other routine legal paperwork across diocesan administration. Work on the register of patrons under the Patronage (Benefices) Measure 1986 also falls within the ordinary annual-fee service.
The Order places limits around that service. Where advice requests fall within certain routine categories, the registrar is not required to correspond with third parties and must first consider whether the diocesan secretary or another diocesan body could deal with the matter more conveniently. If a legal dispute arises between two church officers, the registrar may decline to advise either side, although the Schedule allows advice to both where the registrar considers that helpful in resolving the dispute. Attendance at diocesan boards, councils and committees is also drawn narrowly. Occasional attendance to advise on a specific issue sits within the annual-fee model, but regular attendance to give general advice and assistance may attract separate remuneration. Article 5 then states the general rule: a diocesan registrar is not entitled to extra pay for Schedule 2 duties unless article 6 applies.
Article 6 preserves room for local arrangements, but only on formal terms. A diocesan board of finance may agree to pay an additional annual fee or retainer, yet the agreement must be in writing, must say it is made under article 6, and must state its duration or otherwise continue until ended on at least three months' notice. That drafting matters for accountability. It prevents informal side arrangements around core legal office-holding and gives dioceses a clearer paper trail where the registrar's role goes beyond the default annual-fee package.
The Order is equally clear about work that sits outside the annual fee. Schedule 2 excludes conveyancing, drafting beyond the specified routine instruments, trust and glebe matters, litigation, vacancy in see committee work, a range of clergy discipline and misconduct cases, capability and grievance matters under the Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Regulations 2009, work linked to regulatory bodies, and advice or casework connected with safeguarding allegations or safeguarding risk assessments. Cathedral-specific work, including acting as Chapter clerk and work arising from a diocesan bishop's visitation of a cathedral, is also outside the annual fee. Where those exclusions apply, the instrument provides for fees to be calculated under the Solicitors' (Non-Contentious Business) Remuneration Order 2009 in the cases identified by the Schedule. The policy effect is to separate routine diocesan legal support from casework that is more contentious, specialised or resource-intensive.
Some of those excluded matters have their own payment rules. In certain disciplinary and censure cases the bishop pays the fee. Chapter clerk work is payable out of cathedral revenues. For a notification under section 2 of the Benefices (Transfer of Rights of Patronage) Measure 1930 relating to a guild church in the City of London, the fee is shared as agreed between transferor and transferee, or otherwise paid by the transferee. Provincial registrars are treated separately as well. The Order provides annual fees for their office, but expressly removes from that annual-fee scope advice and work connected with proceedings under section 10 of the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003 and related disciplinary matters under that Measure.
Two final cost rules should not be missed before the 1 January 2027 start date. Fees prescribed by the Order are increased by reasonable travel, subsistence and accommodation expenses, and VAT is payable on top where chargeable. The Schedule also allows separate recovery of disbursements, other than those expenses, when they are incurred in providing the relevant professional services. For diocesan boards of finance, bishops' offices, cathedral bodies and registrars, the immediate task is straightforward. The 2027 budgets, reimbursement routes and any local retainer agreements need to match the legal split set out in the Order, because the instrument is designed not just to set fees but to define who carries the bill for routine work, complex casework and added costs.