There are also financial advantages: under the terms of the Charitable Trusts Act 1853 (as amended), registered places of worship are 'excepted charities', and do not have to subject their funds to inspection.

[7] Since the passing of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, places of worship have not had to pay business rates; registration under the terms of the 1855 Act, while apparently not essential to gain exemption, "is an additional piece of evidence that the property is actively used as a place of worship".

[3] "Any person who is able to represent the congregation" of the place of worship—for example, a pastor, minister or trustee—may fill in a form published by the Home Office, Certifying a Place of Meeting for Religious Worship (Form 76), and send it to the Superintendent General of the General Register Office or a local Superintendent Registrar.

[8] Government advice states that this is a legal requirement,[8] but research indicates that in practice not all disused places of worship are de-registered.

[2][8][note 2] The Toleration Act 1688 granted most Protestant Nonconformist denominations freedom to worship in public buildings or rooms that were registered for this purpose.

[11] Also, a list of all registered places of worship was published on the government's gov.uk website on 17 March 2015 and has subsequently been updated regularly.

An application by the Church of Scientology to have a chapel registered at Saint Hill Manor was rejected by the Registrar General in 1967.

Following the Hodkin decision, there is no longer a requirement of theistic belief in order to qualify as being a place of religious worship for the purpose of registration under the Act.