The Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

which governs the registration and legal recognition of

places of worship A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is somet ...

. It applies only in England and Wales, and does not cover the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

(that country's established church) which is exempt from the Act's requirements. Nor does it affect the

Church in Wales The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The p ...

, which remains part of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

although it is no longer the Established Church in Wales. Registration is not compulsory, but it gives certain financial advantages and is also required before a place of worship can be registered as a venue for marriages.

Overview

Under the terms of the Act, buildings, rooms or other premises can be registered as meeting places for religious worship upon payment of a fee; a record of their registration is then kept by the

General Register Office for England and Wales The General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) is the section of the United Kingdom HM Passport Office responsible for the civil registration of births (including stillbirths), adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in Englan ...

, and the place of worship is assigned a "Worship Number". Registration is not mandatory, but an unregistered place of worship cannot be used for the solemnisation of marriages. There are also financial advantages: under the terms of the

Charitable Trusts Act 1853 The practice of charity is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. There are a number of philosophies about charity, often associated with religion. Etymology The word ''charity'' o ...

(as amended), registered places of worship are 'excepted charities', and do not have to subject their funds to inspection. Also,

Council Tax Council Tax is a local taxation system used in England, Scotland and Wales. It is a tax on domestic property, which was introduced in 1993 by the Local Government Finance Act 1992, replacing the short-lived Community Charge, which in turn re ...

is not levied on their premises. This exemption has applied since 1955. Since the passing of the

Local Government Finance Act 1988 The Local Government Finance Act 1988 introduced significant reforms to local taxation in the United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland). The old systems of Rates in the United Kingdom, rates were replaced by the Poll tax (Great Britain), Communit ...

, places of worship have not had to pay

business rates Rates are a tax on property in the United Kingdom used to fund local government. Business rates are collected throughout the United Kingdom. Domestic rates are collected in Northern Ireland and were collected in England and Wales before 1990 and i ...

; registration under the terms of the 1855 Act, while apparently not essential to gain exemption, "is an additional piece of evidence that the property is actively used as a place of worship".

Procedures

"Any person who is able to represent the congregation" of the place of worship—for example, a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

, minister or trustee—must fill in a form published by the Home Office, ''Certifying a Place of Meeting for Religious Worship'' (Form 76), and send it to the Superintendent General of the

General Register Office General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the recording of vital recor ...

or a local Superintendent Registrar. A fee of £28.00 is payable. Details required on the form include the name, address and physical layout of the building or rooms, the Christian denomination or other faith group to which it belongs, an overview of the services that will take place, and details of the applicant. There is great flexibility in relation to the naming of the faith group for which the building is being registered: for example, the Register contains entries for "Quaker", "Quakers", "Friends" and "Religious Society of Friends", all of which refer to the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

denomination. Furthermore, some faith groups do not have a name, or specifically reject the concept of denominational names. They are allowed to use the descriptions "Christians not otherwise designated" or " congregation or assembly of personswho object to be designated by any distinctive religious appellation" respectively. As of 2010 there were more than 1,500 places of worship registered to "Christians not otherwise designated", representing more than 5% of the national total. If a registered place of worship is demolished and rebuilt on a different site, it must be re-registered under its new identity and assigned a new Worship Number, but more minor structural alterations do not affect the registration. Changes of name must also be notified to the Superintendent General. A place of worship which falls out of use should be de-registered by submitting another form, ''Notice of Disuse of a Certified Place of Meeting for Religious Worship'' (Form 77), to the Superintendent General. Government advice states that this is a legal requirement, but research indicates that in practice not all disused places of worship are de-registered. Details of de-registered places of worship are recorded in ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'' is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are ...

''.

History

Brethren Meeting Hall, Five Oak Green (Information Sign)

The

Toleration Act 1688 The Toleration Act 1688 (1 Will & Mary c 18), also referred to as the Act of Toleration, was an Act of the Parliament of England. Passed in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution, it received royal assent on 24 May 1689. The Act allowed for f ...

granted most

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

Nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

denominations freedom to worship in public buildings or rooms that were registered for this purpose. Registration was done at a local level by a

Clerk of the Peace A clerk of the peace held an office in England and Wales whose responsibility was the records of the quarter sessions and the framing of presentments and indictments. They had legal training, so that they could advise justices of the peace. Histo ...

or the local bishop. The

Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 (31 George III, c. 32) is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1791 relieving Roman Catholics of certain political, educational, and economic disabilities. It admitted Catholics to the practice ...

extended this freedom, and the obligation to register, to the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. The

Places of Religious Worship Certifying Act 1852 The Protestant Dissenters Act ( 15 & 16 Vict. c. 36) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom regarding places of worship for Protestant Dissenters. It replaced the requirement of the Toleration Act 1689 to register such places of wo ...

superseded these Acts and gave the

the responsibility for maintaining the record of registered places of worship, but registration remained compulsory. The Act of 1855 made it optional, but for a building to be used for marriages it had to be registered for worship first (or at the same time). The Act stipulated that a list of all registered places of worship be published in 1856, ''"and also at such subsequent Periods as One of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State shall from Time to Time in that Behalf order or direct"''. In practice, neither full details of all registered places of worship nor extracts from the list have routinely been published by the General Register Office, but the full list was published online in 2010 in response to a

Freedom of Information Request Freedom of information laws allow access by the general public to data held by national governments and, where applicable, by state and local governments. The emergence of freedom of information legislation was a response to increasing dissatisfa ...

. It lists all places of worship registered under the terms of the Act (excluding those subsequently deregistered), and gives their

local government district The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...

, Worship Number (their unique reference number), name, address and the denomination to which they belong. Also, a list of all registered places of worship was published on the government's

gov.uk gov.uk (styled on the site as GOV.UK) is a United Kingdom public sector information website, created by the Government Digital Service to provide a single point of access to HM Government services. The site launched as a beta on 31 January 2012, ...

website on 17 March 2015 and has subsequently been updated regularly. It includes a list of around 30,000 records, including addresses and whether they are also registered for the solemnisation of marriages (opposite- and same-sex). The fee for the registration of a place of worship has been revised upwards on many occasions. When the Act was passed, registration cost 2 s.6 d. (). The most recent piece of legislation setting the fee at £28.00 was The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Fees) Order 2002, which came into effect from 1 April 2003.

Case law

What counts as a place of worship has been the subject of litigation. An application by the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...

to have a chapel registered at

Saint Hill Manor Saint Hill Manor is a Grade II listed country manor house at Saint Hill Green, near East Grinstead in West Sussex, England. It was constructed in 1792 and had several notable owners before being purchased by L. Ron Hubbard and becoming the Britis ...

was rejected by the Registrar General in 1967. This rejection was upheld by the Court of Appeal in the case of '' R v Registrar General, ex p Segerdal''. In 2013, the UK Supreme Court overturned ''Segerdal'' in the case of ''R (on the application of Hodkin and another) v Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages'', 013UKSC 77 which concerned whether a marriage could be conducted at a Scientology property in London. Following the ''Hodkin'' decision, there is no longer a requirement of theistic belief in order to qualify as being a place of religious worship for the purpose of registration under the Act.

Notes

References

External links

Freedom of Information request (April 2010) showing all registered places of worship

Government of the United Kingdom's list (November 2016) of all places of worship registered for marriage, also showing all places of worship registered in accordance with the 1855 Act
{{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1855 Law about religion in the United Kingdom 1855 in England 1855 in Wales Religious buildings and structures in the United Kingdom 1855 in religion Religion in England Religion in Wales