Memorandum by the Faculty Office of the
Archbishop of Canterbury
1. Under the Ecclesiastical Licences Act
1533 (the 1533 Act) the Archbishop of Canterbury is empowered
to grant faculties for various matters, and the administration
is conducted through his Faculty Office at 1, The Sanctuary, Westminister,
SW1.
2. In addition to the granting of special
marriage licences and certain degrees, the Archbishop is the appointing
authority for notaries public in England and Wales.
3. Appeal to the Lord Chancellor
A person who is refused a faculty to practise
as a notary has a right of appeal to the Lord Chancellor personally
under section 11 of the 1533 Act and under section 5 of the Public
Notaries Act 1843. The right of appeal has been exercised very
rarely and only once in recent years according to Faculty Office
records. Although there is no statutory basis for the procedure,
former Lord Chancellors have considered it appropriate to refer
such an appeal to the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice.
4. By letter, dated 25 February 2004, the
Registrar of the Faculty Office was informed that the Government
intends to put forward an amendment to the Bill providing that
the jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor to hear such appeals should
pass to the Vice Chancellor of the Chancery Division "who
will have power to delegate the jurisdiction to a judge in the
Chancery Division as appropriate". This seems to the Faculty
Office to be a sensible proposal. For consistency in relation
to appeals from prospective notaries the same amendment needs
to be made to section 5 of the Public Notaries Act 1843 and it
is submitted that provision should be made in the Bill accordingly.
5. Application of fees, under section 8 of
the 1533 Act
This section provides for a complicated system
of distribution of fees received by the Faculty Office, but the
system appears to have fallen into disuse as long ago as 1666.
A new practice evolved during the nineteenth century whereby specific
fees are paid from the Faculty Office to the Clerk of the Crown
for registering overseas notaries, and this fee is paid as necessary
at the present day. Otherwise the fees received for faculties
are used to pay for the running of the Faculty Office. During
the course of helpful communication with the Department for Constitutional
Affairs the Faculty Office has pointed out that section 8 is now
otiose and has been overtaken by long-standing practical arrangements,
which make it unnecessary for the Ministerial role provided for
in this section to be retained. It is submitted that section 8
should be repealed and it is hoped that the Government will put
forward an amendment of the Bill to this effect.
6. LORD
CHANCELLOR AS
KEEPER OF
THE GREAT
SEALIt is noted
that references to the Lord Chancellor or Keeper of the Great
Seal in the 1533 Act are to be read as a reference to the Secretary
of State for Constitutional Affairs, and this seems to be entirely
appropriate.
7. This submission represent the views of
the Master of the Faculties and the Registrar, being the officers
in charge of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Faculty Office.
21 April 2004[65]
65 See also letter from the Faculty Office of the
Archbishop of Canterbury to the DCA at p 477. Back
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