Browse regulations

The Oil Taxation (Market Value of Oil) Regulations 2006 implement Schedule 3 to the Oil Taxation Act 1975 by establishing detailed methodologies for determining the market value of Category 1 oils (Brent, Ekofisk, Flotta, Forties, and Statfjord blends) and Category 2 oils for petroleum revenue tax purposes. The regulations prescribe: the notional delivery day calculation, averaging methodologies using three industry publications (Argus Crude, ICIS, Platts Oilgram), adjustment factors based on differentials over a 21-14 day window before delivery, and special rules for non-arm's length sales. They apply to oil delivered or appropriated on or after 1st July 2006.

While this regulation is complex, deletion would create substantial uncertainty and compliance costs. Without prescribed methodologies, every oil valuation for tax purposes would become a potential dispute, requiring costly transfer pricing analyses and HMRC negotiations for each transaction. The use of independent third-party publications (Argus, ICIS, Platts) provides objective market references. These rules prevent aggressive tax avoidance through non-arm's length related-party sales while providing certainty for both industry and the Exchequer. The regulation's core purpose—ensuring oil is taxed on arm's length market values—is legitimate and difficult to achieve through simpler alternatives.

The Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 amend the 2002 Regulations to implement what appears to be EU-derived flexible working rights. Key changes include: expanding definitions of 'partner' and 'relative'; defining 'disabled' and 'special guardian'; limiting child-related flexible working requests to before the child reaches age 6 (or 18 if disabled); and creating a new right for employees with 26+ weeks' continuous employment to request flexible working to care for adults aged 18+ who are married to/partnered with, related to, or living with the employee. The regulations also provide a complaints and remedies framework.

These regulations exemplify the EU-derived employment regulation burden that adds compliance costs and administrative burdens for businesses, particularly small enterprises. The detailed definitional requirements (partner, relative, special guardian, disabled) are overly prescriptive and restrict flexible arrangements to statutorily-defined categories. The extension to caring for adults creates new regulatory entitlements that go beyond what market provision would naturally develop, potentially distorting hiring decisions and creating incentives to avoid employees with caregiving responsibilities. The complaints and remedies framework further increases litigation risk and compliance costs for employers.

The Building and Approved Inspectors (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2006 amended the Building Regulations 2000 to introduce regulation 16B, requiring builders to provide fire safety information to the 'responsible person' upon completion of building work on relevant buildings. It also updated completion certificate requirements, modified fire spread measures in Part B of Schedule 1, revised self-certification scheme registrations, and made corresponding amendments to the Approved Inspectors Regulations. Transitional provisions addressed the phase-in of different provisions.

This regulation addresses a genuine information asymmetry in the building market - without a legal requirement, builders would not systematically provide fire safety information to building operators, potentially endangering lives. The regulation is narrowly focused on information handover rather than mandating specific construction methods, making compliance costs proportionate. Fire safety information enables building operators to maintain buildings safely, complementing the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Deletion would leave building operators without documented guidance on fire safety systems, increasing the risk of fire incidents and hindering emergency response.

These Regulations revoke the Town and Country Planning (Regional Spatial Strategies) (Examinations in Public) (Remuneration and Allowances) (England) Regulations 2004, which governed payments to examination panel members for Regional Spatial Strategy hearings. Regional Spatial Strategies were abolished by the Localism Act 2011, making this entire framework obsolete.

The regulation is obsolete — it revokes a 2004 regulation concerning remuneration for RSS examination panels, yet the entire Regional Spatial Strategy system was abolished by the Localism Act 2011. No living regulation depends on this instrument, and it serves no current administrative or legal purpose.

UK-Poland bilateral tax treaty providing double taxation relief for income tax, corporation tax, capital gains tax, and similar Polish taxes. Includes exchange of information provisions to prevent fiscal evasion.

Double taxation treaties reduce distortions to international capital flows and encourage cross-border trade and investment. Without such arrangements, British businesses and individuals face a tax penalty for engaging in international economic activity, driving investment to less efficient domestic uses or to competing nations with better treaty networks. The exchange of information provisions target actual tax evaders rather than impeding legitimate commerce, and are necessary to prevent abuse of the treaty itself. Repealing this would disadvantage UK entities operating in Poland relative to competitors from countries with such arrangements in place.

The Wireless Telegraphy (Jersey) Order 2006 extends provisions of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 to Jersey (the Bailiwick of Jersey, a Crown dependency), with modifications set out in Schedules. It covers general radio spectrum provisions, spectrum regulation, apparatus regulation, broadcasting restrictions, and general provisions. The Order provides for coordination between UK and Jersey regulatory frameworks for wireless telegraphy, including how UK statutory instruments under sections 43(4) and 116(3) apply in Jersey.

This Order extends UK regulatory burden to a separate jurisdiction without democratic accountability to Jersey residents. Jersey, as a Crown dependency with its own legal system, should determine its own regulatory framework for wireless telegraphy rather than having UK law imposed with modifications. Regulatory competition between jurisdictions historically produces better outcomes than harmonized regulation — if Jersey wishes to adopt UK-style rules, it can do so voluntarily. Maintaining this Order perpetuates an unnecessary layer of regulatory coordination that inhibits both jurisdictions from independently optimizing their regulatory frameworks for radio spectrum and wireless telegraphy in response to technological change and market conditions.

The Wireless Telegraphy (Guernsey) Order 2006 extends specified provisions of the UK Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 to the Bailiwick of Guernsey, with modifications. It covers radio spectrum regulation, apparatus approval, and broadcasting restrictions. The Order establishes procedures for how UK statutory instruments under sections 43(4) and 116(3) apply in Guernsey, including registration requirements in the Royal Court of Guernsey.

This Order extends UK regulatory oversight to a sovereign Crown dependency that possesses its own legislative autonomy. The Bailiwick of Guernsey has the right to determine its own telecommunications and radio spectrum framework. By imposing UK regulations (with modifications), this Order constrains Guernsey's regulatory sovereignty without democratic accountability to Guernsey's electorate. If deleted, Guernsey could establish its own telecommunications regime calibrated to its specific needs as a small island financial centre, potentially creating a more competitive, tailored regulatory environment.

A 2006 UK Statutory Instrument that amends the UN International Tribunals (Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda) Order by deleting references to '12 bis, 12 ter, 12 quater' - apparently removing article references within the rules of procedure. Extends to the whole UK and came into force January 2007.

This regulation relates to UN war crimes tribunals (ICTY and ICTR) that have long since concluded their work - the ICTR completed operations in 2015 and the ICTY in 2017. As a technical cleanup amendment removing stale procedural references, it serves no current operational purpose. Keeping obsolete tribunal cooperation provisions on the books creates unnecessary legal complexity with no corresponding benefit, as the underlying international mechanisms they supported no longer exist. Regulations should not survive the problems they were designed to address.

This Order implements United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718 (2006) sanctions against North Korea in British Overseas Territories. It prohibits export of restricted and luxury goods to North Korea, freezes assets of designated persons, restricts procurement from North Korea, and establishes enforcement powers including ship/aircraft/vehicle search and seizure. The Order applies to overseas territories and creates criminal offences with penalties up to 7 years imprisonment.

This regulation imposes severe economic controls that restrict trade and financial transactions, powers typically associated with wartime or emergency economies rather than peacetime free societies. While UN sanctions are cited as authority, the Order goes beyond mere implementation by creating an extensive licensing bureaucracy, asset-freezing regime, and criminal penalties that distort market activity. The 'designated person' provisions grant discretionary power to the Governor to designate individuals without judicial review adequate to protect liberty. Enforcement provisions authorize use of force, detention of vessels, and compelled testimony that disproportionately affect commercial shipping and aviation. These measures, designed to isolate an authoritarian regime, inevitably ensnare legitimate commercial activity and impose compliance costs on British overseas territories and their trading partners. The opportunity for evasion and the creation of black markets through such comprehensive prohibitions typically generate unintended consequences that harm the very populations they aim to protect.

The Parliamentary Commissioner Order 2006 amends the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 by updating Schedules 2 and 4, which list bodies subject to the Parliamentary Commissioner's jurisdiction. It adds 25 new bodies to oversight (including advisory committees and government bodies), removes 8 obsolete entries, renames 2 panels, deletes 2 appeal body entries, and revokes specified Orders. The Order came into force on 22nd January 2007.

This Order is a technical administrative amendment that updates which government bodies fall under Parliamentary Commissioner oversight. It removes outdated bodies (e.g., Dental Vocational Training Authority, National Health Service-wide Clearing Service) while adding current ones. Deleting this would create gaps in accountability for maladministration, leaving citizens without recourse against newly-created bodies not previously listed. Britons would be worse off without this mechanism for challenging government maladministration, as it provides essential ombudsman oversight for the updated list of public bodies.

Permits Canterbury City Council to bear and use the armorial bearings previously used by the corporation of the City of Canterbury (pre-April 1974), conditional on the arms being exemplified according to the laws of arms and recorded in the College of Arms.

This is a permissive, technical order of negligible economic impact that merely preserves civic continuity of heraldic symbols. It imposes no restrictions on trade, competition, or economic activity, nor does it stem from any EU directive or represent gold-plating. Deleting it would create legal uncertainty around Canterbury's civic identity without providing any corresponding liberalising benefit.

This Order amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 to reclassify Methylamphetamine (methamphetamine) from a Class B drug to a Class A drug. It removes Methylamphetamine from Part 2 of Schedule 2 (Class B) and inserts it into Part 1 of Schedule 2 (Class A), thereby increasing criminal penalties for possession, production, and trafficking.

Increasing criminal penalties for a substance that remains prohibited regardless of classification does not reduce harm — it merely escalates the collateral damage of prohibition. Class A designation drives longer prison sentences for non-violent offenders, diverts scarce policing resources from violent crime, and strengthens black market incentives without reducing demand. As a matter of principle, Britons should be free to make their own choices regarding substances; the State's role should be limited to preventing force or fraud against others, not legislating personal morality through escalating criminal sanctions.

This Order revokes three earlier Statutory Instruments that established specific Special Health Authorities under the Health Service Commissioner for England's jurisdiction: the Rural Dispensing Committee Order 1983, the National Blood Authority Order 1994, and the Special Health Authorities Order 2004. It came into force on 22 January 2007, consolidating and removing these separate regulatory instruments.

This regulation is itself a revocation Order that removes three regulatory instruments, not one that imposes new burdens. While the Orders being revoked relate to health service oversight structures, this revocation simplifies the regulatory landscape by eliminating redundant or superseded instruments. Since this Order merely removes previous regulations from the statute books rather than adding new ones, it represents deregulation rather than regulatory burden. The original Orders being revoked may themselves have been candidates for deletion based on their individual merits.

The Association of Law Costs Draftsmen Order 2006 designates the Association of Law Costs Draftsmen (ALCD) as an 'authorised body' under sections 27 and 28 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990, granting it official status to regulate law costs drafting professionals. The Order came into force on 1 January 2007.

This Order grants a professional body state-sanctioned monopoly status to regulate a specialized legal service. Such designation creates barriers to entry, restricts competition, and enables regulatory capture where the ALCD can use its authorised status to serve its own members' interests rather than the public interest. Law costs drafting does not require state-granted privilege to function — civil liability, court requirements for proper documentation, and market reputation provide sufficient quality control. The regulation raises costs for litigants by restricting supply of costs drafting services and perpetuates guild-like barriers that Adam Smith and classical liberals opposed.

This Order transfers census-related functions from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the National Assembly for Wales. Specifically, it transfers functions under section 3 of the Census Act 1920 (census administration in Wales) and requires consultation with the Assembly before recommending census orders for Wales. It also addresses records transfer related to these functions.

This Order devolves administrative functions to Wales, consistent with decentralization principles. Deleting it would simply recentralize these functions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in London rather than reduce regulatory burden. While the Census Act 1920 itself represents government data collection, this Order merely determines which level of government administers that function. Welsh administration of Welsh census matters allows for more locally-responsive implementation.