Ecclesiastical Fees Measure 1962
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Ecclesiastical Fees Measure, 1962
(10 & 11 Eliz. 2)
A MEASURE passed by the National Assembly of the Church of England.
To make further provision for the establishment of tables of ecclesiastical fees, to relieve certain clerks in Holy Orders from the liability to pay certain fees and for purposes connected therewith.
1 Framing of orders relating to fees payable to legal officers.
(1) A Fees Committee constituted in accordance with the provisions of subsection (3) of this section may frame orders relating to fees to be demanded, taken and received by any legal officer for the performance by him of the duties of his office, which expression includes—
( a ) specific duties including duties imposed by any Act or Measure passed before or after the passing of this Measure either on the legal officer or on any other person who delegates these duties to him, and
( b ) in the case of the legal secretary of an archbishop or bishop general duties of giving advice and assistance to the archbishop or bishop, in which case the fee shall be a sum specified in the order payable annually, and where more than one person holds such office in any one province or diocese the total amount payable to all such persons shall be the sum specified in the order.
(2) For the purposes of this Measure the expression ‘legal officer’ means any person who carries out the duties of a legal officer in respect of work relating to the province of Canterbury, the province of York, or any diocese, archdeaconry or cathedral church within either of the said provinces, and is by law or custom required or permitted to act.
(3) Whenever the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York are of opinion that it is desirable that an order or orders should be framed under the provisions of this section they shall request the Lord Chancellor to appoint a person who is or has been a Judge of the Supreme Court or who is or has been a Judge of County Courts, the Chairman of the Bar Council to appoint a barrister and the President of the Law Society to appoint a solicitor, and the three persons so appointed shall be the Fees Committee until such time as they report to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York in writing that in their opinion it is inexpedient that any order under the provisions of this section or any further such order should be framed for the time being, whereupon the Fees Committee shall be discharged until further appointments are made under the provisions of this subsection.
(4) An order framed under the provisions of this section may establish tables of fees, whether by way of substitution for or variation of any existing table of fees or otherwise, and may revoke in whole or in part, alter or add to any order framed under the provisions of this section or any table of fees in operation at the passing of this Measure, and may contain such incidental provisions as may be necessary or desirable.
(5) Any fee payable under an order made under the provisions of this section shall be recoverable as a debt due by proceedings in the County Court.
2 Framing of orders relating to parochial fees.
(1) The Commissioners shall frame an order establishing a table of parochial fees, which shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (4) of this section and section nine of this Measure, apply in all parishes in the provinces of Canterbury and York, and after such order comes into operation may frame further orders in substitution for any order framed under the provisions of this section or revoking in whole or in part or altering or adding to the same.
(2) For the purposes of this Measure the expression ‘parochial fees’ means any fees payable to a clerk in Holy Orders, parish clerk, sexton or other person performing duties in connection with a parish or to a parochial church council for or in respect of the solemnisation or performance of Church offices, the erection of monuments in churchyards, such other services or matters as may by law or custom be now included in a table of parochial fees, and such other services or matters of a like nature for which in the opinion of the Commissioners the payment of fees is appropriate.
(3) An order framed under the provisions of this section may contain such incidental provisions as may seem necessary or desirable, may provide for the payment of special or increased fees for special services and may provide that the amount of any fee specified in the order may be determined in each case by the chancellor of the diocese in the light of the circumstances of the particular case.
(4) No order framed under the provisions of this section shall be binding upon a clerk in Holy Orders, or a parish clerk, or a sexton or any other person performing duties in connection with a parish, who at the passing of this Measure holds office or performs duties in connection with a parish for which a table of fees has not been established in accordance with the provisions of section one of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (Powers) Measure, 1938, without the consent of that person in writing for so long as he holds such office or performs such duties in that parish, but such consent when given shall be irrevocable.
(5) Subject to the provisions of the preceding subsection, where a licence of a chapel for the publication of banns of marriage and the solemnisation of marriage granted under the provisions of section twenty of the Marriage Act, 1949, includes a provision fixing a fee for the solemnisation of a marriage or the doing of any act for which a fee is prescribed by any order made under the provisions of this section of this Measure, the fee prescribed by such order shall be the fee payable, but any provision in the licence specifying the person or persons to whom the fee is payable shall continue to have effect, and where the fee is payable to two or more persons the fee prescribed in such order shall be payable to the same persons in the same proportions as under the provisions of the licence, or as near the same proportions as may conveniently be.
(6) During a vacancy in a benefice fees which but for the vacancy would be paid to the incumbent shall be paid to the sequestrators as part of the income of the benefice.
(7) Any parochial fee whether payable at the passing of this Measure or established by an order made under the provisions of this section shall be recoverable as a debt due by proceedings in the County Court.
(8) No table of fees established under this section shall extend to any matter in respect of which a table of fees may be made under section three of the Burial Act, 1900, or section twelve of the Cremation Act, 1902.
3 Coming into operation of orders.
(1) Every order framed in pursuance of either of the two preceding sections of this Measure shall be laid before the Church Assembly and shall not come into operation unless it has been approved by the Church Assembly.
(2) The Statutory Instruments Act, 1946, shall apply to any order approved by the Church Assembly under the last foregoing subsection as if it were a statutory instrument and were made when so approved, and as if this Measure were an Act providing that any such order should be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either...
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