Church of England legal officers' fees set for 2027

If you have never heard of the Legal Officers (Annual Fees) Order 2026, you are not alone. On the surface, it reads like a narrow church rulebook. In plain English, though, it answers a practical question: when legal work needs doing in the Church of England, who pays for it, and what does that payment actually cover? The Order, published on legislation.gov.uk, was made on 11 July 2026, laid before Parliament on 31 July 2026, and is due to come into force on 1 January 2027. It was made by the Fees Advisory Commission under the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Care of Churches Measure 2018 and approved by the General Synod, which tells you this is formal church law, not casual guidance.

The Order deals with two kinds of legal officer: diocesan registrars and provincial registrars. A diocesan registrar works within a diocese, advising bishops and church bodies there. A provincial registrar works at the level of a whole province. Schedule 1 contains the annual fee tables for both. The payment split matters. The Order says some diocesan registrar fees are paid by the diocesan board of finance, while other fees in Schedule 1 are paid by the diocesan bishop or archbishop. For provincial registrars, the annual fee covers their office duties apart from the disciplinary work carved out in Part B of Table 2. The note to the Order also points out that sums paid by a bishop or archbishop under the 2018 Measure are reimbursed by the Church Commissioners.

For diocesan registrars, we can read the annual fee as a standing payment for ordinary legal housekeeping. Schedule 2 says it covers advice to bishops, archdeacons, clergy, churchwardens, parochial church councils, deanery officers and diocesan committees on legal matters that arise in their church roles. It also covers acting as registrar to the diocesan synod, keeping records, helping with church elections, and answering genuine enquiries about marriage, baptism, confirmation and burial under Church of England law. A large share of that work is administrative but important. The annual fee includes preparing and registering notices, licences, consents and other formal documents linked to ordination, appointments, resignations, ministry arrangements, parish centres of worship, unconsecrated places of worship, delegations of authority and related church business. It also includes acting as registrar to the consistory court unless another fee is set elsewhere.

**What this means:** not every legal question creates a fresh invoice. The annual fee is designed to cover the routine work that keeps diocesan life moving, which makes costs more predictable and helps church officers know where they stand. But the Order also sets limits. A registrar does not have to correspond with third parties on every enquiry, must first consider whether some questions could more conveniently be dealt with by the diocesan secretary or another diocesan person, and may decline to advise either side if two church officers are in dispute. Regular attendance at diocesan boards and committees is not automatically included either. If a registrar is asked to attend regularly to give general advice and assistance, that work can be paid for separately.

The sharpest line in the Order is between routine work and work that is specialist, contentious or unusually time-heavy. Separate fees can still be charged for conveyancing, trust and glebe matters, litigation, work as secretary to a vacancy in see committee, cathedral-related work, and serving as Chapter clerk. A long list of clergy discipline and misconduct matters also sits outside the annual-fee package. That includes proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure 2003, older ecclesiastical offence cases, capability and grievance cases under terms of service rules, and misconduct matters involving licensed lay ministers, readers or deaconesses. Safeguarding is excluded too. The Order says advice or other work connected to allegations covered by House of Bishops safeguarding guidance, or connected to a safeguarding risk assessment, may be charged separately. For readers trying to make sense of church law, that is one of the most important points in the whole document.

The Order is equally careful about who meets those extra costs. In some disciplinary matters, the bishop pays. Work done as Chapter clerk is paid from cathedral revenues. Certain work for people or bodies outside official diocesan structures can also attract a separate fee, and some patronage-related costs fall to whichever party the rules say should carry them. There is one more point about pay that is easy to miss. Article 5 says a diocesan registrar is not entitled to extra remuneration for the duties listed in Schedule 2, except through the route set out in article 6. That route allows a diocesan board of finance to agree an additional annual fee or retainer, but only if the agreement is in writing, clearly made under article 6, and states how long it will last. If no period is written in, either side can end it with at least three months' notice.

Travel, subsistence and accommodation sit on top of the stated fees, so reasonable expenses can be added. Value Added Tax is also payable in addition where it applies. If a registrar incurs other disbursements while providing services covered by Schedule 2, those can be charged separately as well. The Order also revokes the Legal Officers (Annual Fees) (No. 2) Order 2025, making this the new rulebook from 1 January 2027. **What to take away:** this is really a document about boundaries. It tells dioceses, bishops and church officers which legal services are already covered by an annual fee, which ones fall outside that package, and how extra payment must be agreed. Once you strip away the dense drafting, that is the key lesson.