Browse regulations

A temporary traffic order prohibiting vehicles from the M48 Severn Bridge carriageways and slip roads during specified Sundays between August-September 2023 to facilitate the Severn Bridge Half Marathon. The order permits authorized traffic (cyclists, pedestrians, motorcycles under 50cc, invalid carriages) to use designated footpath/cycle tracks, and includes standard exemptions for emergency services.

This is a narrowly tailored, time-limited order (8 hours on specific Sundays) enabling a sporting event that promotes physical activity and community engagement. It appropriately restricts motor vehicle access while preserving access for cyclists, pedestrians, and other non-motorised users. The regulation contains reasonable exemptions for emergency services and requires physical traffic signs to be displayed. Britons would be worse off if deleted because the alternative — prohibiting the event entirely or forcing dangerous shared-use arrangements — would deny participants the health and social benefits of this organized sporting activity. The temporary nature (single Sundays over a five-week window) means the restriction is minimal and proportionate.

These regulations set 25th August 2023 as the appointed day for Schedule 19 (Trade Remedies) of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 to come into force, with a savings provision exempting pre-existing Trade Remedies Authority investigations (dumping/subsidisation and safeguarding investigations initiated before that date) from the new regime.

This is a purely procedural regulation that does nothing more than activate Schedule 19 and grandfather existing investigations. The substantive trade remedy regime remains in Schedule 19 and the underlying Acts. As a transitional administrative instrument with no independent regulatory force, it should be deleted — the 'appointed day' function can be achieved through simple ministerial commencement orders without this unnecessary statutory instrument layer.

These Regulations amend the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 to prohibit the production or supply of 'NI heated tobacco products' in Northern Ireland with: (1) characterising flavours, (2) flavour-containing components, (3) nicotine/tobacco-containing capsules or filters, or (4) technical features allowing consumer modification of smell, taste, or smoke intensity. The regulation defines NI heated tobacco products as novel tobacco products heated to produce inhalable emissions, supplied for consumption in Northern Ireland or through NI travel retail.

These regulations restrict adult consumer choice in a product category where users knowingly accept risks. Such paternalistic prohibitions fail to achieve their stated public health goals — they simply push consumers toward black markets or cross-border alternatives, particularly given the NI-specific scope which creates regulatory arbitrage with the Republic of Ireland. The restrictions on flavours and technical features impose costs on both businesses and consumers while enriching neither. Adults should be free to make their own choices regarding tobacco and related products; prohibition-style regulation of this nature merely creates unintended consequences without meaningful public benefit.

The A38 Derby Junctions Development Consent Order 2023 grants development consent for Highways England to construct highway improvements to the A38 around Derby, including junction upgrades, new access roads, and associated infrastructure. It confers compulsory purchase powers, authority to stop up and divert streets, and exemptions from various street works regulations and environmental permitting requirements. The Order also reclassifies certain roads as trunk roads and establishes traffic management measures for the construction period.

This is a Development Consent Order for nationally significant infrastructure—a major highways project. Unlike regulatory instruments that distort market incentives or create bureaucratic burdens, this Order facilitates the provision of public goods (road infrastructure) that markets would under-provide due to the free-rider problem. The compulsory purchase and regulatory exemptions are incidental to legitimate infrastructure delivery, not regulatory intervention in private markets. Deleting this would not remove a market distortion but would prevent the construction of roads that serve the public interest and economic activity. The A38 is a key arterial route; its improvement reduces transport costs and benefits the economy.

This Order designates coastal margin areas from Bamburgh to the Scottish Border (including Holy Island) as access land under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. It appoints 22nd August 2023 as the date on which the access preparation period ends, following approval of four reports by the Secretary of State submitted by Natural England relating to the England Coast Path in this area.

Removing this regulation would eliminate the legal framework enabling public coastal access along a significant stretch of Britain's coastline. Without statutory access rights, landowners could restrict passage, and the England Coast Path could not function as a continuous national asset. The coordination of access across multiple private landowners presents a genuine market failure that cannot be resolved through voluntary negotiation alone. While property rights concerns are legitimate, Britons would be worse off without this framework as it would deny public access to some of Britain's most scenic coastal landscapes that cannot be adequately provided by the private sector.

Commencement order bringing into force on 1 September 2023 certain provisions of the Financial Services Act 2021 related to: (1) Gibraltar-based persons carrying on activities in the UK (Schedule 2A to FSMA 2000), including approval of regulated activities, corresponding activities in Gibraltar, regulatory objectives, cooperation and consultation requirements; (2) minor and consequential amendments to FSMA 2000 regarding FCA and PRA rule-making powers (sections 137AA and 137GA), sections 213, 224, 417 and 429; and (3) powers to amend Parts 7 and 18A of FSMA 2000.

As a commencement order, this regulation merely activates provisions of the Financial Services Act 2021 already passed by Parliament — it does not itself impose new regulatory burdens. The underlying policy concerns Gibraltar's post-Brexit financial services access to the UK market, which represents a bilateral arrangement rather than EU-derived regulation. The FCA and PRA power limitations (sections 137AA and 137GA) actually constrain regulator discretion, which aligns with free-market principles by preventing bureaucratic overreach. Deleting this would create legal uncertainty and regulatory gaps without reducing substantive obligations, as the primary legislation remains in force.

Commencement No. 2 regulations for FSMA 2023, setting dates for FCA rule-making powers (Sept-Nov 2023) and financial promotion approval transitional arrangements (Nov 2023-Feb 2024), with exemptions from certain cost-benefit analysis requirements for PRA's Basel 3.1 implementation and CRR rule-making during a transition period.

This is a technical commencement and transitional instrument that does not itself impose regulatory burdens but provides necessary legal machinery for orderly implementation of FSMA 2023 reforms already passed by Parliament. The transitional provisions (exempting PRA Basel 3.1 actions from certain requirements, allowing staged financial promotion approvals) actually reduce disruption and provide relief compared to abrupt implementation. Deleting it would create legal uncertainty and implementation chaos without reducing any substantive regulatory requirements—all of which derive from the primary Act, not this commencement instrument.

These Regulations amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2023 by removing the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (Contractual Scheme) Regulations 2013 (S.I. 2013/1388) from the Schedule of retained EU law scheduled for revocation. The effect is to preserve these 2013 Regulations rather than see them repealed as part of Brexit-related regulatory清理.

These amendment regulations needlessly preserve an EU-derived regulatory framework that adds compliance costs without proportional benefit. Post-Brexit Britain should simplify the contractual scheme regime rather than maintain this complex inheritance. The original revocation schedule reflected sound deregulatory intent—this amendment undermines it, perpetuating gold-plated EU rules that restrict fund structuring flexibility.

Statutory instrument authorizing New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (company 08800142) to grant taught awards up to master's level in engineering and architecture/building/planning subjects for a fixed term from 1 September 2023 to 30 November 2026, limited to enrolled students only.

This regulation uses state power to grant exclusive degree-awarding authority to a single private institution, creating a government-sanctioned monopoly in higher education. The real problem is the degree-awarding monopoly itself—which restricts market entry for competing institutions—rather than this specific authorization. Deleting this Order would not harm Britons: the institution can still provide education and its graduates can seek credentials from existing accredited bodies. Keeping this regulation perpetuates the artificial barrier that only state-authorized institutions may award degrees, suppressing competition in higher education that would drive down costs and increase innovation.

These regulations implement the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022, providing remedies for civil servants affected by the unlawful age discrimination in the 2015 public service pension reforms (McCloud/Sergeant case). They establish processes for: remediable service statements; opted-out service elections allowing members to rejoin their pension scheme; immediate choice decisions for pensioners; deferred choice decisions for deferred members; and complex recalculation mechanisms for pension sharing orders on divorce. The regulations apply to the PCSPS and alpha pension schemes.

These regulations correct a proven violation of civil servants' pension rights arising from unlawful age discrimination in the 2015 reforms. Deletion would leave remedy members—including those already receiving pensions or with deferred entitlements—without any statutory mechanism to claim their correct benefits. The administrative complexity, while substantial, is inherent to correcting individualized pension entitlements across multiple employments and scheme transitions. Unlike gold-plated EU directives, these are domestic regulations implementing a court-mandated remedy where Parliament has deliberately chosen to preserve member choice rather than impose a one-size-fits-all solution.

These 2023 Regulations disapply certain powers of direction of NHS England in three specific areas: (1) deciding whether a person has a primary health need under NHS Continuing Healthcare assessments, (2) determining nursing care needs under the Standing Rules, and (3) reviewing decisions connected to these functions. The effect is to remove Treasury/Department of Health direction control over NHS England's exercise of these specific functions.

These regulations reduce bureaucratic control rather than expand it. Deleting them would restore more extensive Treasury/Departmental direction powers over NHS England in continuing healthcare and nursing care assessments, increasing central control. While the NHS's near-monopoly on healthcare provision remains problematic, these regulations modestly reduce direction requirements in specific assessment functions — a marginal improvement in autonomy that makes Britons marginally better off by allowing faster decision-making outside central direction protocols.

Consequential amendments to add the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) to: the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 (as a public authority required to publish equality information); the NHS Clinical Negligence Scheme Regulations 2015; the NHS Liabilities to Third Parties Scheme (England) Regulations 2018; and the NHS Property Expenses Scheme (England) Regulations 2018. These amendments enable HSSIB to participate in NHS liability and expenses schemes, mirroring treatment of other NHS bodies.

These are purely consequential/amministrative amendments to include a newly created body (HSSIB) in existing NHS financial schemes. They add no independent regulatory burden but represent the default institutional response of folding new bodies into existing arrangements without scrutiny. The original Health and Care Act 2022 created HSSIB via primary legislation; these consequential amendments were never subject to independent parliamentary review of their own merit. Such knee-jerk institutional accretion — automatically extending scheme membership without considering whether HSSIB should be treated identically to other NHS bodies — exemplifies the regulatory inertia this review targets. Deletion forces fresh legislative consideration of HSSIB's appropriate treatment rather than reflexive inheritance from established patterns.

Amendment to Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021 that defers the implementation date from 2023 to 2025 and makes a technical correction to regulation 5(5) regarding price promotion restrictions on specified foods.

This amendment merely defers an existing regulatory burden by two years rather than removing it. The original 2021 regulations restrict price promotions on specified foods, interfering with normal market mechanisms and retailer pricing freedom. While this amendment provides temporary relief, it preserves the underlying regulatory framework that distorts price signals, increases compliance costs, and risks unintended consequences such as reduced availability of affordable products for consumers. A consistent regulatory reduction programme should eliminate such interventions entirely rather than postpone them.

These Regulations amend the NHS Pension Scheme Regulations 1995 to introduce a partial retirement option (regulation E5A) allowing members who reduce their pensionable pay to 90% or less to claim immediate payment of a specified percentage of their pension while continuing in pensionable employment. Key provisions include: calculation rules for final year's pensionable pay when partial retirement is claimed, abatement rules if pay later increases above 90% threshold (E5B), special provisions for concurrent part-time employments (E5C), and limits requiring minimum partial pensions of 20% of pensionable service or 0.05% of lifetime allowance. The option may be exercised at most twice, subject to Scheme Actuary advice.

These regulations entrench a large defined-benefit state pension scheme that distorts labor markets,crowds out private retirement provision, and creates perverse incentives around retirement timing. The partial retirement provisions, while seemingly beneficial, actually reinforce reliance on a monopolistic public scheme rather than enabling genuine individual choice. Complexity of defined-benefit formulae (actuarial reductions, abatement rules, lifetime allowance interactions) imposes administrative costs and uncertainties. Deletion would not eliminate partial retirement flexibility—individuals could negotiate such arrangements directly—but would remove the regulatory rigidities and distortions inherent in the NHS scheme structure.

These 2023 Amendment Regulations modify the Trade Remedies (Safeguards) Regulations 2019 by: (1) introducing an 'early review' mechanism allowing Secretary of State to request reviews of definitive safeguarding remedies within 60 days; (2) requiring TRA to consider giving multiple options to the Secretary of State when making recommendations; (3) adding procedural requirements including notification timeframes (2 working days), reassessment periods (21 days), and expanded Secretary of State oversight over mid-term, extension, discontinuation, and TRQ reviews; (4) expanding Secretary of State powers to reject, accept, or request reassessment of TRA recommendations.

These amendments compound protectionist bureaucracy without justification. They add layers of procedural complexity (early reviews, multiple option requirements, expanded Secretary of State oversight) that increase government discretion and create additional entry points for domestic industries to lobby for prolonged trade restrictions. While the underlying Safeguards Regulations remain, these amendments unnecessarily expand bureaucratic control over import protections at the expense of consumer welfare and economic efficiency. The original 2019 Regulations should be the subject of fundamental reform rather than incremental expansion of government intervention in trade.