Faculty simplification

On the 1st January 2016, the new simplified Faculty Jurisdiction Rules 2015 came into effect.

The Faculty process is there to ensure that alterations and repairs to our church buildings are of the highest quality and that important contents are preserved.

These new rules follow the 2012 Archbishops’ Council Faculty Simplification Group, who commissioned a working party chaired by Mrs Anne Sloman to make recommendations for modernising and streamlining the faculty system. The working party consulted widely with parishes and dioceses on the working of the Faculty system, providing the basis for practical proposals to speed up and simplify the process.

Many of the recommendations that were made, were implemented by adapting best practice, for instance through adopting reasonable deadlines in responding to applicants. Other changes needed to be brought to the General Synod and the first piece of legislation generated by the working group’s report, the revised Faculty Jurisdiction Rules, was passed by the General Synod in July 2013.