What type of permission do you need?
Making almost any physical change to your church building, its contents or to the churchyard requires permission. Faculties are issued via the Consistory Court of the Diocese providing authorisation to carry out work and is part of the Church of England’s own planning system (Faculty Jurisdiction).
Minor works to church buildings can obtain permission via an Archdeacon’s List B Certificate and some do not require consent at all (List A).
Information on minor works to churches and list of works that do not require a Faculty (List A and B) can be found by following the links below. Please note that all works whether List A, B or Faculty need to be applied for through the online faculty system.
Minor works – List A and List B permissions
Works which do not appear on the List A and B automatically require a Faculty.
To start the process seek advice from the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) Secretary (Mr Stephen Challenger) or Historic Environment Advice Assistant (Isobel Weare) as to what type of permission you need.
Apply for DAC Advice Online
The Online Faculty System has been closed as a new system is taking its place, the Building Management Portal. The new system is scheduled to go live on 6 October 2026. Please do check back here after that time. All live applications in the Online Faculty System will be transferred automatically to the new Building Management Portal, so you will not need to re-enter your information or lose momentum.
The Online Faculty system is now read-only. The Building Management Portal will be the Church of England’s national digital system for managing applications relating to works on churches, their contents, and churchyards. It will support List A, List B, and faculty applications. The permission framework itself is not changing. The new system hopes to provide a clearer and more structured way to manage the existing process. Access will be through the CofE Portal. This includes two-factor authentication, and some users will need to complete a one-time registration process so that the correct role, church, and diocesan access can be assigned.
More information will be shared as onboarding progresses, including guidance, FAQs, and links to training materials. You can continue to view information, but no further changes can be made to applications during this transition. After the 6th October some users may need to complete a one-time registration process so that their role, diocese, and church access can be assigned correctly. A short How to Guide below shows you how to access your applications.
In the meantime, you can find out more information here about the Building Management Portal.
If you have any questions about your application please contact a member of the Property Team.
For information about the closure of the old system click here: The Online Faculty System (Portal)