Browse regulations

Amendment to National Savings (No. 2) Regulations 2015 introducing: (1) mandatory notice issuance when new certificates are issued confirming purchase or rolled-over term commencement with date of issue; (2) definitions for 'cooling-off period' (30 days from notice) and 'new certificate' (post-22 July 2023 purchases/rollovers); (3) restrictions on early repayment for new certificates, preventing access before term ends, except during the 30-day cooling-off period when repayment must be made, or at Director's discretion if unjust not to.

While this regulation does impose administrative requirements and restrict early access to savings, these costs are minimal and proportionate. The notice requirement provides documentation that prevents disputes about purchase confirmation. The 30-day cooling-off period is a reasonable consumer protection that imposes negligible cost on the scheme. Critically, early repayment restrictions are inherent to fixed-term savings products — without them, the product structure collapses. This regulation does not reflect EU gold-plating, does not harm City competitiveness, does not restrict housing supply, and does not create monopoly barriers. It is specific to a government savings scheme and represents legitimate consumer protection without significant economic harm.

The Tobacco Products (Traceability and Security Features) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 amends the 2019 Regulations by expanding traceability requirements for tobacco products, introducing a tiered penalty regime (Category A-D contraventions with fines from £2,500 to £10,000), allowing deactivation of economic operator identifier codes (EOID) and facility identifier codes (FID), permitting forfeiture of compliant products for repeat offenders after warnings, creating appeals suspension provisions tied to primary business function tests, and establishing local enforcement authority investigation powers.

This regulation imposes substantial compliance costs and criminal sanctions under the guise of traceability that primarily burden legitimate businesses while doing little to address the actual problem of illicit trade. The penalty structure (up to £10,000 per contravention), 5-year FID deactivation periods that effectively shutter tobacco-focused facilities, and forfeiture of compliant products for repeat offenders create punitive outcomes disproportionate to compliance failures. The 50% gross income test to prove 'primary function' is an arbitrary standard that punishes specialised retailers. The existing Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979 and customs enforcement mechanisms already address duty evasion—the additional criminal-style penalties and regulatory infrastructure here represent regulatory gold-plating that adds compliance burden without corresponding public health benefit, merely expanding state control over a legal product market.

This Instrument confirms the Cheshire East Council A533 Middlewich Eastern Bypass road scheme including a new bridge over the Trent and Mersey Canal, effective upon publication of confirmation notice per the Highways Act 1980. It deposits scheme documents with the Department for Transport and Cheshire East Council.

This scheme addresses a specific local infrastructure need — improving east-west connectivity in Middlewich and alleviating traffic bottlenecks. Removing this confirmation would create legal uncertainty, strand invested planning costs, and deny residents the economic benefits of reduced journey times and improved freight access. Unlike EU-derived regulations that impose blanket restrictions, this is a targeted infrastructure authorisation with demonstrated local merit, where deletion would leave a gap in the road network with no alternative mechanism to achieve the same outcome.

This Order amends the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 to bring qualifying cryptoassets under the financial promotion regime. It creates a new exemption (article 73ZA) allowing 'registered persons' (FCA-registered cryptoasset exchange providers and custodian wallet providers under AML regulations) to communicate promotions about qualifying cryptoassets, defined as fungible and transferable cryptoassets. The Order also restricts existing exemptions for high net worth/sophisticated investors from applying to cryptoasset promotions.

This regulation creates discriminatory barriers that advantage incumbent registered crypto businesses over new entrants, restricts speech based on arbitrary distinctions between cryptoassets, and incorrectly applies securities-style promotion rules to a technology sector already subject to AML regulations. The carve-out for 'registered persons' functions as a regulatory moat that raises compliance costs for smaller innovators. Britons would be better off with a principles-based approach that distinguishes genuine consumer harm from normal commercial communication, rather than this complex two-tier system that picks winners among cryptoassets and imposes securities-style regulation on a transformative technology sector.

The Republic of Belarus (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 amend the 2019 Belarus sanctions regulations, expanding export/import prohibitions on goods including banknotes, cement, gold, machinery-related goods, rubber, wood, and luxury goods; adding definitions for chemical and biological weapons-related items, quantum computing materials, and tobacco industry goods; introducing internet services restrictions requiring social media platforms, internet access providers, and app stores to block designated persons; and creating exceptions for personal effects and diplomatic missions.

While these sanctions restrict trade, they target a regime complicit in Russia's war on Ukraine and human rights abuses. Deleting them would benefit the Lukashenko regime without corresponding benefit to Britons. The internet services restrictions (regulation 27P) are targeted at designated persons and propaganda, not general censorship. Removing these would eliminate UK's ability to pressure Belarus over its destabilising actions in Ukraine.

These Regulations amend the Customs (Northern Ireland) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 by inserting Chapter 6 (Repayment or remission of duty on production of evidence) into Part 2. The new Chapter establishes a formal framework for claimants to seek repayment of customs duty paid or remission of duty liability in Northern Ireland, including provisions for repayment and remission agents, eligibility criteria referenced to an external document, time limits (3 years), error rectification procedures, and record-keeping requirements. It applies to goods subject to duty under sections 30A(3) and 40A(1)(b) of the Act where duty has been paid or deferred.

This regulation compounds the complexity of Northern Ireland's post-Brexit customs arrangements rather than simplifying them. The reliance on an external reference document ('repayment and remission reference document') for eligibility criteria creates regulatory uncertainty and dependence on administrative guidance that is not subject to parliamentary scrutiny. While the regulation purports to help businesses recover overpaid duties, the existence of such elaborate repayment mechanisms itself signals a dysfunctional system—ideally, duty should not be charged incorrectly in the first place. The agent appointment system adds further administrative layers. The underlying issue is that Northern Ireland's split customs status (following the Protocol) creates these complex duty liabilities; the regulation merely provides a bureaucratic workaround rather than addressing the root cause. Repealing this would not eliminate the need for duty repayment but would force simplification of the underlying regime.

Prescribes the form to be used for mobile home pitch fee documents under the Mobile Homes Act 1983. Revokes and replaces the 2013 Regulations. Essentially an administrative/procedural requirement specifying document formatting rather than substantive regulation of fees.

This is a pure administrative requirement that prescribes bureaucratic form-filling without justification. The regulations require documents to follow a specific prescribed form, yet simultaneously allow 'a form substantially to the like effect' — the latter provision renders the prescribed form redundant. The 2013 regulations served the same purpose and were revoked and replaced with no substantive change, demonstrating regulatory inertia rather than reform. Such procedural formalities impose compliance costs without corresponding benefits, particularly since mobile home owners and site operators could communicate required information without government-mandated templates. Deleting these regulations would reduce administrative burden while leaving all substantive protections under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 intact.

These Regulations commence section 11 (service police: complaints, misconduct etc) and Schedule 4 of the Armed Forces Act 2021, setting 19th June 2023 as the commencement date. They also confirm the extent of provisions relating to the Service Police Complaints Commissioner's status as a corporation sole, extending to England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and British Overseas Territories (except Gibraltar).

These are purely procedural commencement regulations that merely activate provisions already passed by Parliament in the Armed Forces Act 2021. Deleting them would create legal uncertainty about when Service Police complaints mechanisms and the corporation sole status of the Service Police Complaints Commissioner take effect, without removing any substantive regulation. The underlying policy on Service Police oversight was democratically enacted and requires these regulations to take effect. No regulatory burden exists in commencement regulations themselves — they are administrative machinery, not substantive rules.

Amendment to Plastic Packaging Tax (General) Regulations 2022 requiring separate reporting of tax credits by accounting period: (i) total value of tax credits for the current accounting period, and (ii) total value from previous accounting periods. Comes into force 1 July 2023.

This amendment adds compliance burden with no corresponding public benefit justification. Requiring businesses to separately categorize tax credits by when they arose (current vs. previous accounting periods) increases administrative complexity and compliance costs for a tax that itself is economically distortionary. The requirement does not reduce tax avoidance any more effectively than simpler reporting mechanisms would, while imposing ongoing costs on all plastic packaging tax participants. The underlying Plastic Packaging Tax itself acts as a supply constraint on a legal product, and additional reporting requirements compound this burden without improving outcomes that market mechanisms or simpler administration could achieve.

These Regulations permit HMRC and its agents to disclose information to European Union representatives solely for the purpose of fulfilling UK obligations under the Windsor Framework, which governs post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland. They came into force on 30 June 2023.

While the UK should remain free to negotiate and comply with international agreements, this regulation facilitates ongoing EU oversight mechanisms that perpetuate regulatory alignment with Brussels. The Windsor Framework, despite being presented as a Brexit improvement over the Protocol, still embeds the UK in EU customs and regulatory structures for Northern Ireland trade. Deleting this disclosure regulation would signal intent to renegotiate or exit arrangements that tether Britain to EU administrative processes, ultimately restoring full sovereign control over UK trade policy rather than maintaining institutionalized information-sharing channels with the EU that impede genuine regulatory independence.

These Regulations establish the framework for handling complaints against service police forces (Royal Navy Police, Royal Military Police, Royal Air Force Police) and the tri-service serious crime unit. They create the Service Police Complaints Commissioner role, define complaint procedures, conduct matters, and death or serious injury (DSI) matter investigations, establish administrative action and disciplinary procedures, and set out recording requirements and oversight mechanisms for service police conduct. The regulations apply to the UK, Isle of Man, and British overseas territories except Gibraltar.

Deletion would remove the only independent oversight mechanism for service police conduct, leaving civilians subject to service discipline and service personnel without formal redress. This would risk serious human rights violations (Articles 2 and 3 ECHR require effective investigation mechanisms), undermine public confidence in military policing, and create a accountability vacuum for death or serious injury matters involving service police. While these regulations add administrative complexity, they perform a necessary protective function for a specific population (those subject to service law) who have no alternative recourse mechanism, unlike typical regulatory burdens on commerce or trade.

Amendment to Medical Devices Regulations 2002 that adds definitions for EU Regulations 2017/745 and 2017/746, extends transition periods for legacy medical device certifications (with sunset dates of 2028 and 2030), and ensures certificates issued under old EU Directives remain valid under new EU Regulations through mutual recognition provisions. Applies to Great Britain.

Deleting this amendment would cause immediate harm to Britons by disrupting the availability of medical devices already certified under the old EU framework, with no alternative regulatory pathway ready. The regulation serves a genuine transitional function during the post-Brexit regulatory adjustment period, preventing supply shortages of life-saving medical devices while the longer-term regulatory framework matures. Unlike regulations that impose new burdens, this primarily provides continuity and legal certainty for existing certifications.

A commencement order that brings into force sections 19-30, 32-33 and Schedule 3 of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022, with provisions taking effect 21 days after the regulations are made. It is purely procedural/administrative in nature, establishing the timeline for when certain provisions of the parent Act become law.

This is a commencement order, not a substantive regulation. It merely schedules when already-enacted provisions take effect. It imposes no regulatory burden, creates no compliance costs, and does not restrict economic activity. Deleting it would create legal uncertainty about when the underlying provisions take force, providing no benefit while creating administrative chaos. Procedural machinery of this kind is neutral in terms of economic freedom.

Amends the National Health Service (Liabilities to Third Parties Scheme) (England) Regulations 2018 to add the Commissioner for Patient Safety to the list of parties covered under the NHS liability scheme. The amendment is administrative in nature, taking effect on 11 July 2023 and extending to England and Wales.

This is a minor administrative amendment that extends NHS-related bureaucracy by adding another government body (Commissioner for Patient Safety) to an existing liability scheme. The underlying scheme represents government assumption of risk that private markets could handle more efficiently. While the amendment itself creates limited direct cost, it reinforces the NHS monoculture by ensuring another regulator is embedded within its liability framework. The regulation does not advance competition, choice, or market discipline in healthcare — it merely expands the administrative scope of a state-managed system.

Amends multiple Social Security regulations to add income and capital disregards for three categories of payments: Grenfell Tower payments (compensation for 2017 fire), Post Office compensation payments (for Horizon IT system failures), and vaccine damage payments (under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979). These disregards prevent such payments from reducing means-tested benefit entitlements.

While these payments address genuine wrongs, using the benefits system as a delivery mechanism for compensation creates perverse distortions: it treats some victims differently based on political prioritisation rather than need, adds regulatory complexity across eight separate instruments, and establishes a precedent that encourages further gold-plating of EU-era means-testing rules. The compensation purposes these serve should be achieved through direct, transparent compensation schemes rather than manipulating social security disregards.