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The National Register of the Church’s clergy with a licence or Permission to Officiate (PTO) is now publicly available on the Church of England website.
The Register is an important development in strengthening safeguarding in the Church and was a recommendation in the 2017 Gibb Report which looked into the Church’s handling of allegations against the late Bishop Peter Ball.
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.
At the time of launch, the National Register includes those who are ordained, expanding to include lay ministry in due course.
A screenshot showing the National Register of Clergy search tool on the Church of England website.
William Nye, Secretary General for the Archbishops’ Council, said:
“Before now, PTO and licence details were held in each diocese but not published nationally. From today, the public can search the register to verify whether someone has 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 register will be updated on a daily basis and so we encourage all active clergy to check their details and contact their diocesan office if their details need updating.
“Establishing the National Register has been a large and complex undertaking and has only been made possible thanks to colleagues in each diocese and the National Church Institutions working together over the past two years to achieve this major step forward. I would like to offer my thanks to everyone involved for their hard work and collaboration, particularly given the challenges of Covid-19, and also to clergy for their cooperation in making the creation of the register possible.”
The National Register contains information about thousands of clergy. If anyone on the Register believes that an element of their entry is not correct, they should contact their diocesan office or email the People System team.
The Register is part of a wider programme of work to bring people data, systems and processes together across the Church of England. The information presented in the National Register is held in a people system which will, in time, also hold a range of data on lay staff of Church bodies, including the National Church Institutions. As such it contains standard demographic questions, which are optional, for all users. As well as being the data source for the National Register, the people system will also manage the payment of clergy stipends.
Search the National Register of Clergy
Read more information about the National Register of Clergy
Contact the People System team
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 (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.