Browse regulations

These Regulations commence sections 194 and 195 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which establish schemes for disregarding certain old convictions/cautions and granting pardons for certain offenses. They also contain transitional provisions ensuring that applications received before the commencement date are handled under the previous regime.

These regulations merely bring beneficial criminal justice reforms into effect—allowing individuals with minor historical offenses to have them disregarded and receive pardons, reducing unnecessary collateral consequences that restrict employment and rehabilitation. Deleting this would merely delay implementation without providing any offsetting benefit to anyone. The transitional provision sensibly protects those who already submitted applications.

These Regulations bring into force provisions of the Charities Act 2022 on 14th June 2023, with saving provisions ensuring that old law (sections 282, 284, 288-291, 353 of the 2011 Act) continues to apply to ongoing charity resolution cases where trustees passed resolutions before the appointed day and proceedings were still pending.

This is a pure commencement regulation establishing transition dates and saving provisions for ongoing proceedings. Deleting it would create legal chaos and uncertainty. The saving provisions protect charities and trustees who properly initiated proceedings under the old regime by ensuring their cases are resolved under the law that applied when they commenced. As a procedural transitional instrument rather than a regulatory burden, it causes no economic harm and preserves legal certainty during the implementation of the Charities Act 2022.

This Order sets maximum tolls for the Dunham Bridge, replacing the 2013 Order (which had revoked the 1994 Act tolls) with a new Schedule of permissible tolls. It grants the Dunham Bridge Company authority to charge up to the specified amounts for bridge use.

This Order exemplifies government price-control interference in private enterprise. A private bridge company should set its own tolls based on market forces and costs—requiring government authorization to revise prices is unnecessary bureaucratic control. If the bridge holds monopoly power, the solution is competition or structural separation, not price caps that invite rent-seeking. Maximum toll schedules create perverse incentives: they signal the acceptable price ceiling rather than the competitive equilibrium, and impede the company's ability to respond to changing conditions. The market (alternative routes, ferry options, traffic patterns) disciplines pricing more efficiently than statutory instruments.

Commencement regulation bringing Section 5 (NHS England mandate: cancer outcome targets) of the Health and Care Act 2022 into force on 14th June 2023. Procedural in nature, extending to England and Wales.

Commencement regulations are purely procedural instruments that merely activate provisions already enacted by Parliament. They add no independent regulatory burden, but they perpetuate the parliamentary convention of delegated authority for timing decisions that should require primary legislation debate. Deletion would preserve parliamentary sovereignty over when significant statutory obligations take effect, rather than allowing executive branch to dictate implementation schedules without full democratic scrutiny.

The Policing Protocol Order 2023 brings into force the Policing Protocol 2023 (contained in the Schedule), which supersedes and replaces the prior protocol established by the 2011 Order. The Order extends to England and Wales, came into force on 3rd July 2023, and revokes the Policing Protocol Order 2011. It establishes governance and partnership frameworks for police forces regarding engagement with local authorities, criminal justice partners, and community stakeholders.

A coherent policing protocol is essential infrastructure for inter-agency coordination, accountability, and effective law enforcement. Without a defined protocol, roles and responsibilities between police, local authorities, and criminal justice partners become ambiguous, risking coordination failures that could harm public safety. While the content of the Schedule matters, this Order merely updates an existing governance framework — deleting it without replacement would create a regulatory vacuum in police partnership governance. The protocol does not restrict trade, impose significant economic burdens on businesses, or impede market competition; it governs internal police operational relationships.

Amends the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 to add England-specific definitions (groundwater mobile plant, Source Protection Zone 1, mobile plant, pollutant, pollution), extend permit requirements to hydrocarbon exploration discharges, add binding rules for small sewage discharges, create new permit exemptions for closed-loop ground source heating/cooling systems and low-environmental-risk burials at new cemeteries, and add hydrogeological assessment requirements for English groundwater permits.

While the regulation aims to protect groundwater from pollution, it imposes excessive prescriptive requirements that create barriers to legitimate activities. The detailed numerical setbacks (20m-250m from protected sites, 50m from wells, 30m from watercourses), burial density caps (30-2500 per hectare based on aquifer type), equipment compliance mandates tied to specific British Standards versions, and complex Source Protection Zone restrictions function as de facto prohibitions on development in many areas. These requirements harm Britons by raising costs for renewable heating solutions, constraining cemetery development, and creating permitting uncertainty. Environmental protection could be achieved more efficiently through general duty-of-care standards combined with risk-based flexible guidance rather than rigid prescription.

Maidstone (Electoral Changes) Order 2023 restructures electoral wards in Maidstone borough by abolishing existing wards and creating 22 new ones, modifies parish ward boundaries for Boughton Monchelsea, Boxley, Otham, and Thurnham parishes, and specifies councillor numbers for each ward. Effective October 2023 for election proceedings and May 2024 for other purposes.

This is a technical electoral administration order from the Local Government Boundary Commission with no regulatory burden on economic activity. Unlike regulations affecting business, trade, or competition, this merely adjusts ward boundaries and councillor allocations for democratic representation. Deletion would create electoral confusion, legal uncertainty about ward boundaries, and administrative chaos. The LGBCE performs necessary democratic functions in balancing electorate sizes and ensuring fair representation — outcomes difficult to achieve through ad-hoc arrangements.

This Order abolishes existing Stevenage borough wards and replaces them with 13 new wards, each returning 3 councillors. It establishes election timing (all councillors elected in 2024, then phased retirements in 2026-2028), determines retirement order by vote count, and provides tie-breaker provisions using lot drawing. It is a standard electoral administration order from the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

This is a routine local government electoral administration order that establishes clear, predictable rules for ward boundaries and councillor elections. It imposes no economic restrictions, does not affect business competition, healthcare supply, planning permissions, or financial services. Electoral administration structures are necessary for functional local democracy, and the phased retirement schedule (based on vote share) provides fair representation continuity. There is no gold-plating, no EU-derived burden, and no regulatory cost to citizens.

This Order abolishes existing wards of Redditch borough and replaces them with nine new wards, each returning three councillors. It establishes the electoral schedule for 2024 when all councillors will be elected simultaneously, with staggered retirement dates in 2026, 2027, and 2028 based on vote counts. It includes provisions for resolving ties by lot and procedures for filling vacancies.

This Order implements boundary changes determined by the Local Government Boundary Commission through its statutory review process. Deleting it would prevent the democratically-approved electoral rebalancing from taking effect, creating constitutional confusion and denying Redditch residents the fair representation the boundary review was designed to deliver. As a technical implementation order for locally-initiated boundary changes, it has no economic costs or trade implications.

This Order amends the Libya (Sanctions) (Overseas Territories) Order 2021 to extend financial sanctions regulations to British overseas territories. It modifies licensing provisions in Regulation 48 to allow certain licensed transactions under both Part 1 or Part 2 of the licensing regime, effectively expanding the categories of permitted financial activities despite sanctions.

Sanctions regimes restrict voluntary commerce between willing parties, drive compliance costs that make the City of London less competitive against New York, Singapore, and Dubai, and create paperwork burdens without clear evidence of achieving their stated foreign policy goals. As Milton Friedman observed, sanctions typically fail to change target regime behavior while harming ordinary citizens more than leadership. Britons would benefit from the restoration of unrestricted financial relations with Libya, including trade opportunities and reduced compliance overhead.

This Order appoints specific named individuals as His Majesty's Inspectors of Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted), effective 15th June 2023. It is a routine administrative appointment instrument with no regulatory burden.

This is a simple appointment Order that fills necessary positions in the Ofsted inspectorate. Unlike regulatory instruments that impose costs on businesses or distort market incentives, this merely designates who will serve as statutory inspectors. Without validly appointed inspectors, the inspection framework for schools and children's services could not function, potentially harming the very educational standards and child safety outcomes that Adam Smith and classical liberals would value. Deleting this would not reduce regulatory burden—it would simply leave critical posts vacant or improperly filled, accomplishing nothing.

These Regulations amend the 2012 RoHS Regulations by substituting entries 1-9 in Schedule A2 Table 1, updating mercury concentration limits (in mg per burner/lamp) for various categories of fluorescent lamps, discharge lamps, and high-pressure sodium lamps. The amendments align UK limits with recent EU RoHS directive changes, with staggered compliance dates ranging from February 2024 to February 2027.

While mercury is genuinely hazardous, these substance restrictions function as a non-tariff barrier that suppresses competition and raises compliance costs for manufacturers. Such technical standards, originally designed to harmonise with the EU single market, are now retained EU law with no democratic scrutiny. The specific mercury thresholds reflect industry negotiations rather than hard science. A free society would address mercury externalities through property rights and tort law rather than mandating burner composition. LEDs already displace these lamp types commercially, making such mandates unnecessary — the market is solving this problem. Deleting this regulation would restore regulatory autonomy and reduce costs for businesses without meaningfully worsening environmental outcomes, given that improper disposal is already addressed by separate waste regulations.

The Exempt Charities Order 2023 declares AECC University College to be an exempt charity under the Charities Act 2011, effective 15th June 2023. It grants this single institution relief from standard Charity Commission registration and reporting requirements.

Targeted exemptions for individual institutions create arbitrary privileged categories without competitive justification. This Order exemplifies regulatory capture — a single entity seeking special dispensation from general charity rules. The 'exempt charity' framework itself lacks principled economic rationale; why should one institution be spared democratic oversight while others face it? Deleting this removes an unjustified competitive advantage and signals that Britain's charity regime should treat similar institutions similarly, rather than through ad hoc political favours.

The Little Crow Solar Park (Amendment) Order 2023 amends the 2022 Order by extending the consent duration from the 35th anniversary to the 45th anniversary (a 10-year extension) for what appears to be a solar park infrastructure project.

This is a minor administrative amendment extending an existing infrastructure consent. Solar power increases energy supply diversity and market competition. Deleting this would simply revert to the shorter 35-year term, creating regulatory uncertainty and potentially hindering private investment in renewable energy infrastructure. No evidence of EU gold-plating, disproportionate burden, or competitive distortion exists here.

Designates an area (Phase 1 of BCP2 Building Free Port Customs Site) as a free zone for 10 years, with Portico Shipping Limited appointed as the responsible authority. Imposes extensive obligations on the responsible authority including: providing free accommodation/facilities to HMRC, maintaining enclosed access-controlled areas, record-keeping and disclosure requirements, compliance with customs obligations, health and safety responsibilities, and extensive notification duties to HMRC regarding breaches, changes, and planned construction.

This instrument represents state intervention that creates a government-designated monopoly for Portico Shipping Limited rather than allowing market competition. The requirement for the responsible authority to provide free accommodation, facilities, and land to the Crown constitutes corporate welfare. The extensive compliance obligations (record-keeping, disclosure, notification requirements, health and safety liability) impose significant unseen costs that will be passed through to businesses operating in the zone, reducing its competitiveness. The 10-year lock-in with a single designated operator forecloses potential competitors and is fundamentally incompatible with free trade principles. Rather than unleashing market forces, this regulation codifies a privileged position for one company.