Browse regulations

The Transport and Works (Guided Transport Modes) (Amendment) Order 2022 amends the 1992 Order to add four new guided transport mode categories (road-based/track-based with sensor or side guidance) and defines terms like 'electromagnetic information'. This extends the Transport and Works Act regulatory framework to emerging autonomous and sensor-guided transport technologies.

This amendment extends the Transport and Works regulatory regime to autonomous vehicle technologies that should remain under general road traffic law. Sensor-guided and autonomous road vehicles are already adequately regulated under existing road traffic legislation and should not be drawn into a framework designed for railways and fixed-guideway systems. The amendment creates regulatory uncertainty for innovators, imposes compliance costs from a regime ill-suited to these technologies, and risks gold-plating standards beyond what is necessary for safety. These definitional extensions could inadvertently restrict innovation in autonomous transport by subjecting them to approval processes designed for trams and monorails rather than evaluating them on their own merits under existing highway and road transport law.

Amendment regulations that extend the effective date for restrictions on advertising less healthy food from 1 January 2025 to 1 October 2025. These restrictions limit advertising of foods high in fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) on television and digital platforms.

These regulations restrict commercial speech and limit businesses' ability to advertise legal products, representing government paternalism that distorts market information. The restrictions harm broadcasters by reducing advertising revenue (potentially driving business to foreign competitors), harm food manufacturers by restricting their market access, and harm consumers by limiting information about available products. No evidence demonstrates that advertising bans effectively reduce obesity compared to less restrictive alternatives such as education, voluntary codes, or targeted welfare. The government has not shown Britons would be worse off without this intervention — they would simply have more choice and access to information.

The Voter Identification Regulations 2022 implement the voter ID requirements introduced by the Elections Act 2022, establishing a comprehensive bureaucratic framework for electoral identity documents. The regulations set out application procedures for electoral identity documents, define acceptable identification documents for voting, create verification mechanisms involving data sharing with the Department for Work and Pensions, establish appeal procedures for refused applications, and set timelines for processing applications during election periods. They apply to parliamentary elections, local elections, PCC elections, mayoral elections, and referendums across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

These regulations impose substantial bureaucratic costs on voters and election administrators to address a problem that does not meaningfully exist — in-person voter fraud is extraordinarily rare in Britain. The compliance apparatus requires identity verification through government data sharing (DWP), creates a two-tier voting system based on document possession, and places particular burden on disadvantaged groups who are less likely to hold the specified documents. The administrative machinery for processing applications, verifying identity, handling appeals, and maintaining records represents a significant expansion of state surveillance into electoral processes. A free society should not require bureaucratic authorization for citizens to exercise the fundamental act of democratic participation — the right to vote.

These Regulations establish fee structures for applications seeking exemptions from the Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment regime under the 2020 Regulations. They set a standard fee of £39,721, allow the Secretary of State to publish alternative charging schemes with Treasury consent, provide for fee refunds where applications are withdrawn or costs are overstated, and require the Secretary of State to acknowledge receipt of applications.

The £39,721 fee creates a massive barrier to entry for businesses seeking exemptions, effectively functioning as a revenue-raising mechanism rather than genuine cost recovery. This high administrative burden discourages competition and innovation, particularly for SMEs. As retained EU law never properly scrutinised by Parliament post-Brexit, these fees were inherited wholesale without democratic review. The exemption system itself adds compliance costs without commensurate public benefit — the hazardous substance restrictions can be maintained through less costly administrative mechanisms.

These are commencement regulations bringing subsections (4) and (5) of section 11 of the Professional Qualifications Act 2022 into force on 31st December 2022. The Professional Qualifications Act 2022 established a post-Brexit framework for recognising professional qualifications from international jurisdictions, replacing the previous EU mutual recognition regime.

This regulation facilitates cross-border professional mobility and trade in professional services by activating provisions enabling recognition of international qualifications. Removing it would leave gaps in the UK's post-Brexit professional qualification recognition framework, harming both UK professionals seeking to practice abroad and foreign professionals seeking to practice in the UK. Unlike gold-plated EU-era regulations, this represents newly enacted UK legislation specifically designed to open markets rather than restrict them.

Order detrunks a section of the A453 Trunk Road at Mill Hill Roundabout by ceasing its trunk road status and reclassifying it as a classified road, with responsibility transferring from the Secretary of State for Transport to Nottinghamshire County Council.

This Order reduces central government control over highways and transfers responsibility to local authorities, consistent with principles of subsidiarity and local governance. Britons in Nottinghamshire are better served by local highway authorities who are more accountable to their communities. Deleting this Order would restore unnecessary central government burden with no compensating benefit.

The Architects (Fees, Electronic Communications and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2022 amend the Architects Act 1997 to: (1) authorize the Architects Registration Board (ARB) to charge fees for qualification prescription, Register document provision, and testing services, capped at reasonable costs with annual transparency reporting; (2) permit electronic service of notices via prescribed methods subject to recipient consent and withdrawal rights; (3) modify Board composition requirements; and (4) extend transitional provisions for UK/Swiss nationals under EU Exit arrangements.

This regulation props up a mandatory licensing regime that restricts who may practice architecture, creating an artificial barrier to entry that inflates costs for architects and consumers alike. The ARB's power to set its own fees constitutes a de facto tax on professional practice with no market discipline. While the electronic communications amendments modernize notice procedures, they add complexity without addressing the fundamental problem: statutory registration requirements that limit supply, raise prices, and protect incumbent architects rather than consumers. The transparency requirement for fee publication does not prevent overcharging when the Board faces no competitive pressure.

Amendment Regulations 2022 modifying the Register of Overseas Entities (Verification and Provision of Information) Regulations 2022. The amendments: (1) expand exclusions from 'relevant information' definition to include previously verified/submitted data, pension scheme beneficiaries, and certain required information under ECTEA; (2) add new verification pathway allowing relevant persons to verify beneficial owner conditions and certain required information from non-independent reliable sources; (3) modify who qualifies as a 'relevant person' for verification by adding officers of entities/arrangements or joint venture partners; (4) change information trigger from 'provided to a relevant person by or on behalf of an overseas entity' to 'obtained or received by a relevant person'.

The verification regime creates substantial friction for legitimate overseas investment in UK property, dampening transactional volume and reducing tax revenue from property transactions. While permitting verification from non-independent sources marginally reduces burden, the overall framework imposes costs on overseas entities that ultimately make UK property ownership less attractive—driving capital and associated economic activity to competing jurisdictions in New York, Singapore, and Dubai. The original ECTEA framework was inherited from EU anti-money laundering directives and retains their bureaucratic structure without adequate assessment of whether UK-specific interests required different approach.

Amendment to Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017 adding exemptions for Scale-up Workers and Senior/Specialist Workers on intra-corporate transfers (up to 36 months) under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The charge is a levy on employers sponsoring migrant workers.

The Immigration Skills Charge is a tax on employing skilled workers that raises labor costs and makes Britain less competitive globally in attracting talent. While this amendment creates exemptions (moving marginally in the right direction), it still maintains a distortionary charge with complex categorical exemptions that create market fragmentation. A truly dynamic free-trading nation would not tax the employment of skilled workers—the charge itself should be repealed entirely, not patched with targeted exemptions that benefit politically-favoured categories while penalising other skilled workers. The intra-corporate transfer exemption also embeds EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement commitments into domestic law, limiting post-Brexit regulatory flexibility.

Technical amendment regulations that modify the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) (Amendment) (No. 4) Regulations 2022 by correcting cross-references and inserting missing regulatory citations. Extends to all UK jurisdictions. Comes into force January 2023.

This is a purely technical corrective amendment with no substantive policy content—it merely fixes broken cross-references and citation errors in the parent regulations. Deleting it would leave the No. 4 Regulations in an internally inconsistent state with incorrect references, potentially creating legal ambiguity in student loan repayment obligations. While the underlying student loan regulatory regime may warrant broader scrutiny, this amendment itself imposes no additional burden and correction of legislative drafting errors serves both administrators and borrowers.

Product Safety and Metrology (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2022 extend transitional periods for product safety conformity assessments post-Brexit, modifying timeframes (e.g., 24 months to four/seven years, 36 months to seven years) across 18+ harmonised product regulations. They allow products not yet placed on market before 31st December 2024 to continue using EU-era conformity assessment procedures until certificates expire or until 31st December 2027.

While extending EU-derived conformity assessment procedures contradicts regulatory independence goals, deleting these transitional provisions mid-transition would strand products already certified under EU rules, forcing costly re-certification with no safety benefit. These are genuinely temporary measures with hard sunset dates (31st December 2027), not permanent entrenchments of EU bureaucracy. The transitional provisions prevent immediate disruption during the Brexit adjustment period without permanently locking in EU frameworks.

Amends the Immigration (Persons Designated under Sanctions Regulations) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 by inserting paragraph 2A, which provides that paragraph (2) (which grants certain immigration protections to designated persons lawfully in the UK) ceases to apply when the person leaves the United Kingdom. In essence, individuals designated under sanctions who leave the UK lose the immigration benefits specified in paragraph (2) upon departure.

This regulation creates a punitive mechanism that restricts the rights and movement of designated individuals by removing immigration protections when they leave the UK. It discourages voluntary departure and effectively creates a coercive restriction on movement. Sanctions themselves already restrict economic interaction with designated persons; this regulation adds immigration controls as a further lever that has no clear justification in protecting Britons from harm. The ability of individuals to leave a country freely is a fundamental liberty, and regulations that penalise departure serve no legitimate economic or safety purpose that could not be achieved through less restrictive means.

These Regulations, in force from 1 January 2023, amend Schedule 4 Part 1 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 to modify which intelligence agency provisions apply to the Security Service, Secret Intelligence Service, GCHQ, and the UK National Authority for Counter Eavesdropping. The changes remove certain restrictions (61(7)(b)) from security service entries, add new provisions (61A(7)(a)) for intelligence agencies, and rename the Counter Eavesdropping authority.

These regulations expand surveillance powers of intelligence agencies by removing limitations (61(7)(b)) and adding new authorisations (61A(7)(a)). The renaming of the Counter Eavesdropping authority to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office further broadens institutional scope. Surveillance regulations of this nature create chilling effects on legitimate activity, carry serious risks of mission creep and abuse, and impose hidden costs on society through the deterrence of free expression and association. The original Investigatory Powers Act 2016 was already criticised as one of the most sweeping surveillance powers in democratic history; these amendments move further in the wrong direction rather than reducing state overreach.

The Keadby 3 (Carbon Capture Equipped Gas Fired Generating Station) Order 2022 grants development consent for a carbon capture-equipped gas-fired power station in North Lincolnshire, authorising compulsory acquisition of land, street works, utility connections, and operational requirements. The Order establishes the regulatory framework for Keadby Generation Limited to construct and operate a 910MW combined cycle gas turbine power station with carbon capture equipment capable of capturing at least 90% of CO2 emissions at full load.

This Order represents government intervention that picks winners in the energy market by granting exclusive development consent to a specific gas-fired power project with carbon capture technology. The extensive compulsory acquisition powers, operational requirements, and regulatory approvals create barriers to entry for competing energy projects. The carbon capture mandate imposes significant costs while relying on uncertain commercial viability without government-guaranteed income streams. Removing this intervention would allow market forces to determine energy investment rather than directing resources based on political determination. The development consent process itself, rather than serving as proper oversight, creates a centralised gateway that advantages large corporate interests over smaller competitors.

These Rules amend the Local Elections (Principal Areas), Local Elections (Parish and Communities), and Greater London Authority Elections Rules to introduce mandatory voter identification requirements at local elections in England. Key provisions include: requiring voters to produce specified identity documents before receiving a ballot paper; adding 'What is your name?' and 'What is your address?' questions; establishing procedures for refusing ballot papers to voters who fail to prove identity; creating a ballot paper refusal list to track refusals; requiring presiding officers to collect and disclose information about voter ID applications to the Secretary of State and Electoral Commission; and providing for private areas where voters can produce ID. The amendments came into force on 16th January 2023 but do not apply to elections with qualifying dates on or before 3rd May 2023.

Without this regulation, Britons would face increased risk of voter impersonation fraud at local elections. While documented cases of in-person voter fraud are rare, the absence of any identity verification mechanism represents a genuine vulnerability in the electoral system. This regulation achieves the legitimate aim of election security in a way that is hard to replicate through less restrictive alternatives - voluntary ID schemes have lower compliance, and postal voting safeguards do not address in-person fraud. The privacy provisions (anonymisation, 10-year retention limit, data protection compliance) appropriately balance surveillance concerns with security needs. Deletion would leave the electoral system less secure than the current framework provides.