The Ecclesiastical Exemption A Technical Comparison of the Church of England’s Faculty Jurisdiction and Secular Listed Building Consent Regimes

Abstract

The Faculty Jurisdiction is the process that the Church of England operates under the Ecclesiastical Exemption when permission is required to carry out works to its listed church buildings. Listed building consent is the process that secular authorities operate when permission is required to carry out work to secular listed buildings. Over the last century there has been a constant debate as to whether the Church of England should still operate outside of secular control. With this in mind this dissertation aims to carry out a technical comparison of the Faculty Jurisdiction and listed building consent regimes. The research methodology used within this dissertation is a qualitative methodology and the research method is semi-structured interviews as the questions raised as part of the research are subjective in nature. The study found that overall the two processes are quite similar in nature but there are some key differences. These differences revolve around public involvement, knowledge and expertise and resource levels. It is the finding of this study that listed building consent could not deal with works to listed churches as effectively as the C of E’s Faculty Jurisdiction.