Browse regulations

These Regulations appoint 12th November 2024 as the day on which Schedule 26 to the Finance Act 2021 comes into force for the purpose of enabling regulations to be made under paragraph 16(2) of that Schedule. Schedule 26 establishes a 'Second Penalty Assessment' regime relating to tax compliance penalties.

This is a delegated legislation instrument that merely activates a regulation-making power for a penalty regime. The Second Penalty Assessment framework creates additional compliance burdens and penalty exposure for taxpayers without clear evidence of proportionate enforcement benefit. Such penalty regimes, as an institution, tend to produce unintended consequences including excessive compliance costs, deterrent effects on voluntary disclosure, and potential for HMRC overreach. The regulation introduces no new substantive benefit that could not be achieved through simpler enforcement mechanisms, while perpetuating a layer of bureaucratic penalty administration that harms Britons through increased compliance costs and uncertainty.

General Medical Council (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order of Council 2024, coming into force 13th December 2024. Amends rules governing the GMC, which regulates medical practitioners' registration, education, and professional standards. Only the Order's introductory paragraph was provided, containing no substantive regulatory text.

Only the Order's citation and commencement clause were provided, not the actual regulatory content in the Schedule. Without the substantive amendments, proper assessment is impossible. However, given the broader context of regulatory reform, any GMC rules that impose licensing requirements, scope-of-practice restrictions, or compliance burdens on medical professionals should be critically reviewed for necessity and proportionality. The medical regulatory apparatus historically restricts supply of practitioners and contributes to NHS waiting times by limiting who can provide medical services.

This Order designates 24 local authority areas in England as civil enforcement areas for moving traffic contraventions (such as bus lane violations, traffic signal breaches, and no-entry violations). It extends the civil enforcement regime previously limited to parking contraventions to cover moving traffic offences. The Order also amends the Bus Lane Contraventions (Approved Local Authorities) (England) Order 2005 to add West Sussex County Council entries. Local authorities gain powers to issue Penalty Charge Notices and use civil enforcement mechanisms for these contraventions.

Civil enforcement of moving traffic contraventions creates perverse incentives for local authorities to maximise fine revenue rather than improve traffic flow or safety. The fragmentation of enforcement across dozens of separate local authority regimes adds compliance complexity for drivers. Historical evidence shows such regimes lead to excessive camera deployment, unclear signage, and penalties that disproportionately affect occasional visitors unfamiliar with local rules. Road safety objectives are better served through clear, consistent national standards and police discretion rather than council-run civil enforcement with inherent conflicts of interest between revenue generation and genuine traffic management.

A correction order that amends the Medworth Energy from Waste Combined Heat and Power Facility Order 2024, correcting errors in Schedule 1 and replacing Part 4 of Schedule 11 (provisions for protection of Eastern Power Networks) with new provisions set out in Schedule 2.

This Order merely corrects administrative errors in a previously made Order and replaces schedule provisions. The corrections themselves are minor technical fixes, but the underlying Order represents aNSIP-approved energy facility receiving government authorization outside normal market competition. Energy from Waste facilities typically benefit from subsidized revenue streams and guaranteed grid access. Rather than correcting toward more market-friendly provisions, this simplytidies up a politically directed approval process. If the original project approval was questionable on free-market grounds, correcting its paperwork does not remedy that fundamental flaw.

Commencement order bringing into force provisions of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 relating to designated high streets and town centres (ss.191-202), rental auctions (s.203), contractual tenancy arrangements (ss.204-206), tenancy-in-default powers (ss.207-213), letting notices (s.214), compensation (ss.216-218), and associated appeal schedules.

These provisions codify government control over commercial tenancy arrangements through designation of high streets, mandatory auction procedures, and bureaucratic notice requirements. Such interventions distort the rental market, increase compliance costs for landlords, and restrict the freedom of property owners to negotiate terms voluntarily. The appeals framework adds further administrative burden without clear evidence that market mechanisms cannot achieve the desired outcomes more efficiently.

These regulations implement Part 10 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, establishing a rental auction scheme for qualifying high-street premises in England. They prescribe detailed procedural requirements for local authorities conducting rental auctions, including designation of high streets/town centres, serving initial/final letting notices, conducting surveys, undertaking searches, preparing auction packs, marketing premises, receiving bids, and concluding tenancies. They also amend permitted development rights to allow change of use to suitable high-street uses for the duration of such tenancies.

These regulations impose extensive bureaucratic intervention in private property markets, compelling landlords to participate in government-prescribed rental auctions through a 12-week procedural regime with mandatory notices, dictated tenancy contract terms, and prescribed service requirements. This violates core principles of property rights and contract freedom. The premise that government auctions can solve empty high-street properties ignores market signals—rental prices will naturally adjust to attract tenants absent artificial constraints. The compliance burden, with detailed requirements for CON29 searches, land registry titles, certificates, surveys, and marketing brochures, creates significant transaction costs that deter participation and discourage property improvement investment. From a Friedmanesque perspective, this scheme substitutes government allocation for price mechanism, producing perverse incentives and preventing the natural market correction that would restore high-street viability.

This Order amends the Diseases of Animals (Approved Disinfectants) (Fees and Amendment) (England) Order 2011 and the Animal Gatherings (Fees) (England) Order 2018. It increases the annual fee for approved disinfectants from £590 to £677 (approximately 15%) for the relevant year, and substitutes new fee schedules for animal gatherings. The Order applies to fees for applications received on or after 1st December 2024.

This regulation increases fees on approved disinfectants and animal gatherings, but the fundamental issue is the approval regime itself. Government-mandated approval requirements for disinfectants create unnecessary barriers to market entry, restricting competition and raising costs. The fees, even when cost-recovery, legitimize a gatekeeping function that could be achieved through market mechanisms such as industry self-certification or private testing laboratories. The 15% fee increase will be passed on to farmers and animal handlers, raising their operating costs without demonstrated corresponding benefit. A competitive market with liability for substandard products would discipline quality more effectively than bureaucratic approval.

An Appointed Day Order that brings into effect the Pensions Regulator's Defined Benefit Funding Code of Practice on 12th November 2024. The Order extends to England and Wales and Scotland, and is made under the Pensions Act 2004 authority.

This Order perpetuates a layer of regulatory intervention in private occupational pension schemes without sufficient justification. Defined benefit pension regulation imposes significant compliance burdens on employers, and evidence shows such mandates can discourage employers from offering these schemes altogether — reducing worker choice and ultimately shifting retirement risk onto individuals. The underlying Code of Practice, enforced by the Pensions Regulator, adds unseen costs to businesses that sponsor these schemes, particularly affecting SMEs. As a retained EU-era regulatory structure, it warrants fundamental review rather than automatic renewal via appointed day orders.

This Order specifies the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSIB), established by the Health and Care Act 2022, as a person eligible for VAT refunds under section 33E of the Value Added Tax Act 1994. It came into force on 3rd December 2024.

This is a technical fiscal measure enabling HSIB to recover irrecoverable VAT, consistent with arrangements for other public bodies under s33E VAT Act 1994. Without this, HSIB would either require higher parliamentary funding to compensate for VAT costs or absorb the irrecoverable tax, reducing resources available for healthcare safety investigations. There is no competition distortion, no market restriction, and no bureaucratic burden imposed on private enterprise. The regulation simply ensures public safety functions are not unnecessarily penalized by fiscal architecture.

Specifies the East Midlands Combined County Authority as a body entitled to VAT refunds under section 33 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994, effective 3rd December 2024. Section 33 allows certain public bodies to recover VAT incurred on purchases since they cannot deduct input tax in the normal commercial manner.

Without this Order, the East Midlands Combined County Authority would bear irrecoverable VAT costs on all purchases, increasing taxpayer burden or reducing public service provision. Section 33 refunds are a standard, necessary feature of VAT systems for public bodies that cannot recover input tax through normal commercial channels — deleting this would impose additional costs with no benefit to economic freedom or competition.

Enforcement regulations for the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act 2024, establishing powers for inspectors to issue hold notices preventing illegal livestock exports, inspection and entry powers, record-keeping requirements for exporters, seizure powers, offences and penalties, and information-sharing arrangements between HMRC and enforcement authorities. The regulations apply across England, Wales, and Scotland with certain provisions limited to specific jurisdictions.

Without these enforcement regulations, the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act 2024 would be effectively unenforceable - inspectors would have no legal power to issue hold notices, enter premises, seize evidence, or compel record production. The regulations impose reasonable administrative requirements (record-keeping for exporters, inspector authentication) that are necessary to enforce Parliament's legitimate decision to restrict certain livestock exports. While enforcement inevitably adds some burden, the alternative - leaving animal welfare protections without operational effect - would harm both animals and consumers who expect these standards to be upheld.

Updates candidate election expense limits for City of London ward elections and liverymen in common hall elections, increasing the base limit from £266 to £460 and per-voter rates from 5.2p/28.3p to 9p/49p to account for inflation since 1983.

Spending limits on political candidates restrict political competition and free speech, principles Adam Smith would have recognised. The City of London's special electoral privileges are themselves anachronistic. While the increases are modest inflation adjustments, the regulation perpetuates a system of artificial constraint on electoral participation that benefits incumbents and established interests. The limits were never democratically scrutinised when originally set and have no principled justification beyond inertia. Deletion would restore candidates' freedom to spend their own resources on political communication.

This Order amends the Dangerous Dogs Exemption Schemes (England and Wales) Order 2015 and related Orders, making technical changes to exemption scheme conditions for dogs (particularly XL Bullies) prohibited under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Key changes include: modified neutering requirements and deadlines for XL Bully dogs; updated microchipping exemption criteria; new annual insurance renewal requirements; increased certificate of exemption fees from £77+VAT to £92.40; and revised procedures for transferring responsibility for exempted dogs.

This regulation exemplifies the classic regulatory problem: it achieves minimal public safety benefit while imposing significant costs on responsible dog owners. The annual insurance renewal mandate, fee increases, and bureaucratic procedural requirements add layers of compliance burden without meaningfully reducing risk — responsible owners already insure and microchip their dogs voluntarily. The neutralised XL Bully exception allowing until 18 months merely delays inevitable neutering with no safety justification. These amendments expand government interference in private transactions (rehoming dogs) and create new administrative requirements that drive costs upward with no corresponding public benefit, typical of regulations that achieve their stated goal through unnecessarily restrictive means.

Amendment order that modifies the 2015 Dogger Bank Teesside A and B Offshore Wind Farm consent order, increasing a technical energy threshold in paragraph 5(8)(b) from 1,900 kilojoules to 3,000 kilojoules for Part 3 (requirements) of the authorised project schedule.

This is a micro-regulatory consent order that epitomises the state's role in picking winners and micromanaging technical specifications for private infrastructure projects. The state should not be setting kilojoule thresholds for offshore wind farms — such technical mandates distort incentives, add compliance costs, and concentrate decision-making authority in bureaucratic hands rather than allowing developers and market forces to determine appropriate technical standards. While this amendment relaxes a requirement (increasing the threshold), the fundamental problem remains: a consent regime requiring Secretary of State approval for specific technical parameters creates unnecessary barriers, delays, and uncertainty that drive up costs and discourage investment. Infrastructure consent should be granted based on broader planning merit, not maintained through detailed technical prescription of this nature.

These Regulations allow HMRC to assess the 'second penalty' under Schedule 26 FA 2021 (for tax remaining unpaid after 30 days) before the end of the further penalty period, provided Date A exceeds Date B (per paragraph 18 time limits) and the tax remains unpaid 7 days before Date A.

This regulation expands HMRC's enforcement powers by permitting earlier penalty assessments. While procedurally technical, it effectively accelerates fiscal penalties on taxpayers who have outstanding tax liabilities. Such acceleration of penalty collection mechanisms adds pressure on individuals and businesses already experiencing cash flow difficulties, potentially creating a cascade effect. The regulation does not establish the underlying penalty (which exists in primary legislation) but rather amplifies its enforcement timing. In a principled free-market tax system, penalties should be clear, proportionate, and not subject to discretionary early assessment that could worsen financial distress for those struggling to pay their lawful tax liabilities.