National Register of Clergy

It is a list of all ordained clergy (bishops, priests and deacons) in the Church of England who are authorised to minister.  The public will be able to search the National Register to verify whether someone has Permission to Officiate (PTO) or licence to hold office, in much the same way as you can search for a qualified medical professional on the national medical directory.

The National Register is one of the recommendations in the 2017 Gibb Report into the case of the late Peter Ball, setting out necessary steps to ensure safeguarding in the Church is of the highest possible standard. The changes relate to Recommendation 11 (b):

The Church should introduce arrangements for a national register of clergy with PTO.

The Church of England has decided not to limit the register to clergy with PTO only, but to include all active clergy. Having a single, reliable, up to date register will enable clergy, churchwardens, and members of the public to check the bona fides of all clergy with licence or permission to officiate.

The implementation of the National Register is part of a wider programme of work that’s bringing people data, systems, and processes together from across the Church of England. This will help us manage people data in a consistent way across the National Church Institutions and the wider Church.

The register will include the following information about active clergy:

• Their title and name in which they publicly minister.
• How they are engaged with the Church of England, for example: Associate Vicar - St Mary & St Anne, Moseley
• The Diocese, Area or Benefice to which they are licensed.

This information will be publicly available on the Church of England website. The National Register will contain no more information on individual clerics than is already in the public sphere by means of church and diocesan websites and notices boards up and down the country.

• It will provide, for the first time in the Church’s history, a single list of all clergy authorised to minister.
• It will provide greater awareness to the public and to the Church more generally of the ministry of clergy not on the central payroll, for example, self-supporting clergy, clergy on PTO and clergy in chaplaincy roles.
• The National Register will be delivered by putting in place a new People System that will help bishops and their staff to maintain accurate information about clergy and share information more effectively as the records will only need to be updated once. Information can also be transferred when clergy move from one diocese to another.
• As well as enabling bishops to carry out oversight of their clergy more effectively, it will reduce bureaucracy and duplication, produce comprehensive and more accurate data, and enable the publication of more accurate ministry statistics.
• Making information about all clergy authorised for public ministry publicly available will mean that clergy with an authorised ministry will want to ensure that their details in the National Register are correctly included.

If for some reason, someone is engaged in public ministry and this is not recorded on the National Register, people can raise concerns with the relevant bishop, and it will now be possible to establish the reason and either ensure that the National Register is properly updated or carry out an investigation into whether they are carrying out ministry on an unauthorised basis. 

• Members of the public and people like funeral directors can verify a person’s claim to be an authorised Church of England minister
• Clergy can check that other clergy are appropriately authorised before inviting them to officiate
• Bishops, when considering whether to grant PTO, can check if someone has it in any other diocese so that they can liaise with the relevant Bishop
• Bishops can check whether there are other Bishops that have granted the cleric PTO who need to be informed if they withdraw or do not renew authority or PTO
• Employers can check that someone already has appropriate authorisation from a Bishop if they are considering whether to employ them as a chaplain.

The National Register went live in May 2021.

The National Register will be updated every 24 hours.

The information will be held in a new People System managed by the National Church Institutions of the Church of England (NCIs).

No. All those who have a license from their Bishop or Archbishop will be published on the National Register by law. 

No. Only those who hold a Bishop’s Licence or Permission to Officiate will appear on the National Register.

The National Register is only about those who are authorised. It will not say who is not authorised or why. There may be very good reasons why someone is not authorised, and conclusions should not be made on the basis of non-inclusion.  For example, they could be taking a temporary break from ministry, or have retired, or be between roles. But if someone is carrying out ministry they do need to be authorised. If someone is suspended or had their PTO/licence removed, or their PTO has lapsed, they also will not appear.

If you are worried about a child or adult, or that a person may be a risk to others, please contact your Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser (DSA) without delay.  If a child or adult is in immediate danger or requires medical attention, call the police and/or social services immediately. For more information, please visit our dedicated safeguarding area.

The Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 2020, which states that personal data regarding public ministry must be given to the Archbishops’ Council for the purpose of providing a National Register of Ministry, received Royal Assent in March 2020.  The relevant regulation covering the information that will be published was passed at General Synod in November 2020, under The National Ministry Register (Clergy) Regulations 2020.

Firstly, it will help ensure that our records about who is authorised to minister and in what way and in which location – and updating records when the authorisation has ceased – are accurate and up to date. Making it a legal requirement will ensure that it is done properly. 

Secondly, if a register is to do its job properly, it needs to include all relevant individuals, so that nobody can claim to be authorised but say that they aren’t in the register for some reason.

Thirdly, the UK and EU General Data Protection Regulations require us to have a stated basis for processing personal data. Making it a legal requirement for data on authorised clergy to be maintained and published gives us the necessary lawful basis to make it permissible for bishops and the Archbishops’ Council to process such data because they are doing so in order to meet a legislative requirement. 

At the time of launch, the National Register will include those who are ordained, expanding to include lay ministry in due course.

A letter was sent to all active clergy in the Church of England to inform them that the National Register will be publicly available later in the year, and at the same time asking them to confirm that the information we hold is accurate. 

We are not providing biographical details or contact details which are in Crockford’s. Clergy can also ask not to be published in Crockford.

No. The provision of local diocesan directories or online contact management systems covering clergy and office holders will continue as before.

No, the Register will only include your title and name, how you are engaged with the Church of England (current post/licence) and the Diocese, Area or Benefice to which you are licensed. It will not include contact, biographical or historical information.

Where clergy have given their consent, Crockford’s Clerical Directory will continue to publish a broader range of information including contact details and records of previous ministry about the clergy of the Church of England, the Church in Wales, the Church of Ireland and the Scottish Episcopal Church, to online subscribers and purchasers of the printed book.

You can view/update your own Crockford entry without charge and control your data permissions online via the My Clergy Page area of the Crockford website.

Please read our Privacy Notice. 

Both the People System and the National Register are the result of an 18-month collaboration between the NCIs and representatives from each of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England.