Browse regulations

The Manston Airport Development Consent Order 2022 grants development consent to RiverOak Strategic Partners Limited for airport-related development at Manston Airport, including freight distribution centres. It confers compulsory purchase powers over land, authority to stop up public rights of way, traffic regulation powers, and drainage rights. The Order establishes the legal framework for constructing and operating the airport, including requirements for environmental mitigation, noise insulation, security (£6.2 million), and various highway and street works. It incorporates extensive definitions, procedural requirements, and provisions for heritage asset protection.

This Development Consent Order exemplifies the worst of state-directed infrastructure policy — granting a single private entity (RiverOak Strategic Partners) compulsory purchase powers to seize land from unwilling owners, extinguishing public rights of way without adequate recourse, and creating a government-licensed monopoly over airport operations at Manston. Rather than allowing market competition and private negotiation, this Order uses coercive state power to override property rights. The extensive regulatory apparatus — traffic restrictions, environmental requirements, heritage protections imposed by bureaucratic fiat rather than contract — adds costs without corresponding benefits. If this airport is commercially viable, it should be built through voluntary transactions and private law contracts, not through statutory instruments that strip citizens of their property rights. The £6.2 million security requirement and mandatory compensation schemes represent government-mandated risk allocation rather than market-based solutions. In a truly free Britain, land assembly for infrastructure would occur through negotiation, not compulsion.

This Order grants the University for the Creative Arts competence to award research degrees (as defined under section 42 of the relevant Act) for a fixed term from 1 September 2022 to 30 November 2025, and permits the university to authorize other institutions to grant such awards on its behalf.

While degree-awarding monopolies generally warrant scrutiny, this Order is narrowly scoped, already contains a sunset clause (expiring November 2025), and addresses legitimate quality assurance concerns by ensuring only an established institution can validate research degrees. Deletion would create a regulatory vacuum potentially harmful to students and employers who rely on verified academic credentials, with no clear free-market alternative that maintains standards. The fixed term means this instrument will require renewal review anyway, making it self-limiting.

Temporary Regulations that amended EU Regulation 576/2013 on non-commercial pet animal movement to add an alternative ELISA-based test method for measuring rabies antibody levels (>= 0.3 EU/ml) meeting specific validation standards. In force from 1 October 2022 to 1 April 2023, applying to England.

These Regulations have already expired (1 April 2023) and serve no ongoing legal function. As a time-limited, temporary amendment to add an alternative testing option, keeping expired regulations on the statute book creates unnecessary regulatory clutter. The underlying EU Regulation 576/2013 remains intact and can function without this spent amendment.

The African Swine Fever (Import Controls) (England and Scotland) Order 2022 restricts imports of porcine products (pigs, pork, pork-derived products) from EEA states, Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Switzerland. It mandates health/identification marks for products of animal origin, specific packaging and labeling for animal by-products, and contains personal consumption exemptions (under 2kg). Enforcement is assigned to Dover district council for Channel Tunnel operations. The regulation primarily references retained EU law (Regulations 853/2004, 1069/2009, 767/2009, 2017/625) for its substantive requirements.

African Swine Fever causes severe economic damage to pig industries and could devastate UK pig farming if introduced. Unlike many regulations that merely restrict market activity, this addresses a genuine negative externality where unrestricted trade would impose substantial, uncompensated costs on domestic producers. The personal consumption exemption (2kg) appropriately minimizes burden on small importers. While it references retained EU law, animal health controls differ from economic regulation—the disease transmission risk justifies border controls in ways that ordinary trade restrictions do not. Removal without alternative would leave the UK pig sector exposed to preventable epizootic outbreak.

Commencement regulation that brings Sections 126-129 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (concerning building industry schemes and prohibitions on development and building control) into force on 1st September 2022. Signed by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Commencement regulations are administrative machinery that trigger substantive regulatory restrictions on development and building control. Sections 126-129 of the Building Safety Act impose prohibitions and schemes that restrict building activity — exactly the kind of intervention that worsens Britain's housing crisis. Delaying their implementation by deleting this instrument preserves freedom of development longer, and Parliament can re-commence these provisions through affirmative resolution when appropriate. The regulation itself has no independent utility — its only effect is to activate costly restrictions on property rights and development.

This Order amends the Insolvency Proceedings (Fees) Order 2016 to increase deposits required when presenting bankruptcy petitions from £990 to £1,500 and winding up petitions from £1,600 to £2,600. It also replaces 'will' with 'must' in article 4(1)-(9) regarding deposit requirements. The changes take effect 1st November 2022 and apply to England and Wales.

This regulation imposes substantial fee increases (51% for bankruptcy petitions, 62.5% for winding up petitions) on individuals and businesses already in financial distress. These deposits act as barriers to accessing the insolvency system, potentially forcing distressed parties toward informal arrangements or worse outcomes. The fees represent revenue extraction from those least able to bear additional costs, with no corresponding improvement in service or regulatory benefit. Higher insolvency barriers can prevent legitimate business restructuring, destroy going concern value, and reduce recovery rates for creditors. The amendments serve no Hayekian spontaneous order rationale nor Friedmanite market correction purpose — they merely extract higher rents from failure, undermining confidence in the insolvency framework as a safety valve for market correction.

Amendment to NHS Pharmaceutical Regulations 2013, effective October 2022, adding coronavirus definitions, removing EPS list provisions, inserting Regulation 91A (zero/nominal reimbursement for government-procured coronavirus vaccines and antivirals to avoid double-payment), amending superintendent change notification requirements in applications, modifying appeals deferral procedures, and adding workforce survey requirements for pharmacy contractors.

Regulation 91A is economically sound cost-control preventing windfall reimbursement for products government already supplied at no cost. The other provisions are procedural cleanups or administrative requirements that impose minimal burden relative to their purpose. The workforce survey requirement provides useful market data without restricting supply. The deletions of EPS list references reflect genuine structural changes rather than arbitrary removal of protections.

These Regulations are commencement provisions for the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, bringing specified sections (1-13, 24, 25(2)) into force on 1 October 2022. They are purely procedural instruments that activate substantive provisions of the parent Act.

This is a procedural commencement instrument with no independent regulatory burden—it merely activates provisions already enacted by Parliament. The substantive regulatory costs (if any) flow from the underlying Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021, not from this SI. Deleting it would create legal uncertainty and timing gaps without addressing any underlying regulatory harm. Commencement regulations of this nature are standard administrative machinery that do not themselves impose the type of regulatory distortions this review targets.

Amends the Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules 1993 to permit oral hearings to be conducted wholly or partly by electronic communication (including telephone), subject to conditions: the Tribunal must consider it just and equitable, and all parties and public attendees must be able to hear and see proceedings as the Tribunal does.

This amendment merely expands procedural options available to the Tribunal and parties — it does not mandate electronic hearings but permits them with appropriate safeguards. Removing this would restrict flexibility, increase costs for parties who cannot attend in person, and delay proceedings. The conditions (ability to hear/see and just and equitable determination) provide reasonable protection against abuse. The unseen cost of deletion would be reduced access to justice and increased procedural rigidity.

The Electronic Communications (Security Measures) Regulations 2022 implement security obligations for public electronic communications networks and services under section 105A of the Communications Act 2003. They require network providers and service providers to: design and construct networks to reduce security compromise risks; identify and manage security risks through written records and regular reviews; monitor security critical functions; manage third party supplier risks; implement multi-factor authentication and access controls; prepare incident response plans; conduct regular security testing; and report security compromises to other providers. The regulations extend to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and came into force on 1 October 2022.

Electronic communications networks constitute critical national infrastructure where market failures create systematic underinvestment in security due to significant positive externalities — a compromise of one network can cascade across the entire system and harm third parties who have no contractual relationship with the compromised provider. While excessive regulation is generally harmful, these regulations address a genuine coordination problem that cannot be solved through bilateral contracts alone. The statutory basis in section 105A of the Communications Act 2003 provides democratic legitimacy, and the 'appropriate and proportionate' standard throughout preserves flexibility rather than imposing rigid technical mandates. Deleting these would leave critical infrastructure inadequately protected against security compromises that can propagate across networks, causing harm far beyond the initially affected provider.

The A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet Development Consent Order 2022 grants development consent under the Planning Act 2008 for construction of a new 10-mile dual carriageway (A421) between Black Cat and Caxton Gibbet junctions. The Order contains definitions, grants compulsory acquisition powers to National Highways Limited, prescribes maintenance responsibilities for various highway structures, imposes traffic regulation measures (speed limits, clearways, prohibitions), and critically exempts the authorised development from multiple regulatory regimes including Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016 (flood risk activities), Land Drainage Act 1991 byelaws, and the Community Infrastructure Levy. The Order also contains extensive provisions for street works, rights of way modifications, and transfer of benefit provisions for specific utility companies.

This DCO exemplifies the problem with NSIP governance: it grants development consent while simultaneously exempting the project from multiple layers of environmental and planning regulation that apply to other developments. The exemptions from Environmental Permitting (flood risk), Land Drainage byelaws, and CIL remove safeguards that exist for good reason, creating a double standard where politically-favoured infrastructure projects avoid regulatory scrutiny borne by ordinary developers. The extensive compulsory purchase powers, maintenance obligations imposed on local authorities without full funding provisions, and complex traffic regulation regime demonstrate regulatory complexity that could be reduced. While infrastructure authorization may be necessary, the selective exemption from environmental protections sets a problematic precedent that undermines the regulatory floor and creates perverse incentives to route projects through the NSIP regime to avoid ordinary regulatory requirements.

These are the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts and Personal Medical Services Agreements) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 2022, which came into force on 1 October 2022 and amend the 2015 GMS Contracts and PMS Agreements Regulations governing how primary care medical services are contracted within the NHS in England and Wales.

These amending regulations cannot be assessed without access to Schedules 1 and 2 which contain the actual amendments. However, given that the NHS's near-monopoly on healthcare provision suppresses private alternatives and restricts supply, any regulation that further entrenchments NHS contractual arrangements should be deleted. Such amendments typically impose additional administrative burdens on GP practices, contribute to the regulatory complexity that deters new market entrants, and reinforce the public monopoly at the expense of patient choice and competitive healthcare markets.

These are commencement regulations that bring sections 9 and 10 of the Professional Qualifications Act 2022 into force on 28th October 2022. Section 9 imposes a duty on regulators to provide information to regulators in other parts of the UK; section 10 imposes a similar duty regarding overseas regulators. The regulations extend to all of the United Kingdom.

These provisions facilitate regulatory cooperation and information sharing across UK jurisdictions and with overseas regulators. Such cooperation is essential for the recognition of professional qualifications across borders, which promotes labor mobility and reduces barriers to entry for skilled professionals. Without this information-sharing framework, professionals moving between UK jurisdictions or seeking to practice overseas could face unnecessary delays or duplicate requirements. While commencement regulations are administrative in nature, deleting them would leave gaps in the regulatory infrastructure needed for professional mobility.

Amends the Electronic Communications (Universal Service) Order 2003 to update the definition of 'publicly available telephone service' to clarify it covers modern telephone services with emergency access, and removes facsimile services from the Schedule's list of publicly available telephone services.

This amendment narrows regulatory scope by removing facsimile (an obsolete technology) from universal service obligations, which is deregulatory in nature. However, the underlying Universal Service regime itself represents a distortion of market incentives by mandating specific services at regulated prices, artificially propping up legacy infrastructure and suppressing private investment in modern alternatives. The amendment does not address these fundamental problems—it merely tidies the edges of a regime that should be abolished entirely. Retained EU-derived regulations on universal service obligations create ongoing compliance costs and deter competitive entry, harming British consumers through higher prices and reduced innovation.

This regulation extends multiple Brexit-related transitional deadlines in food information and labelling rules, pushing compliance dates from around September 2022 to 1 January 2024 or 31 December 2023. It applies to quick-frozen foods, horticultural produce, beef/veal labelling, food additives, food safety, country of origin meat labelling, honey, caseins, and various EU Commission marketing standards.

While this regulation extends EU-derived transitional provisions, deleting it would force compliance deadlines to revert to their original shorter periods, potentially disrupting businesses that legitimately planned around these extended timeframes. The regulation merely accommodates orderly post-Brexit transition rather than creating new regulatory burdens — it does not gold-plate or expand regulatory requirements, merely provides administrative flexibility during the adjustment period.