Browse regulations

The Markets in Financial Instruments (Switzerland Equivalence) Regulations 2021 designate BX Swiss AG and SIX Swiss Exchange AG as equivalent third-country trading venues under MiFIR, enabling UK firms to continue trading on Swiss exchanges following Brexit. The Treasury assessed Switzerland's legal and supervisory framework as satisfying the requisite equivalence criteria.

This regulation facilitates rather than restricts trade. Deleting it would harm British financial institutions and investors by creating barriers to trading on Swiss venues, reducing competition in UK financial markets. Equivalence determinations of this kind are win-win arrangements that allow British firms and investors access to foreign venues without imposing burdensome domestic requirements. Unlike gold-plated EU directives or restrictive planning regimes, this regulation merely recognizes an existing reality to the benefit of UK market participants.

Amendment Regulations 2021 updating the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012. Key changes include: removing obsolete Grenfell Tower fund references and adding National Emergencies Trust as qualifying payment; adjusting universal credit disregard rules for pension-age couples; updating non-dependent deduction amounts (£12.40→£12.45, £8.25→£8.30, £10.35→£10.40); increasing personal allowances for pensioners attaining state pension age on or after 1st April 2021; adding Scottish payments to income/capital disregards (Scottish Child Payment, Young Carer Grants, short-term assistance, winter heating assistance); adding Victims' Payments Regulations 2020 and Child Migrants Trust payments to capital disregards; adding DWP error rectification payments to disregards; and making post-Brexit Citizens' Rights adjustments for frontier workers and family members of Northern Ireland.

These are primarily technical updates to maintain the scheme's functionality: inflationary adjustments to allowances and premiums prevent benefit erosion; adding Scottish payment disregards reflects devolution; removing obsolete Grenfell references and adding National Emergencies Trust are administrative corrections; post-Brexit Citizens' Rights amendments are legally necessary. The changes do not fundamentally expand the welfare apparatus but rather correct the existing framework. Britons would be worse off without these updates as the scheme would become inconsistent, outdated, and fail to reflect current circumstances including devolved Scottish benefits and post-Brexit immigration status categories.

This Harbour Revision Order transfers responsibility for Mutford Lock and adjoining land from Associated British Ports (A.B. Ports) to the Broads Authority, formalising an administrative reorganisation of harbour jurisdiction in the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. It includes transitional provisions transferring contracts, legal proceedings and liabilities, enables the Authority to set usage charges, and amends the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 to incorporate the lock into the defined navigation area.

This Order merely formalises a transfer of administrative responsibility for a specific lock from one public harbour authority to another, with appropriate transitional provisions for existing contracts and legal proceedings. It creates no new regulatory burdens, restrictions on trade, or compliance requirements. Deleting it would leave a legal vacuum regarding responsibility for Mutford Lock, potentially harming navigation management and leaving existing contracts and proceedings in legal limbo. No compelling case exists that Britons would be materially worse off from this administrative reorganisation.

This Harbour Revision Order transfers jurisdiction, management, property, rights and liabilities of Mutford Lock from Associated British Ports (A.B. Ports) to the Broads Authority. It establishes the transfer date (19th February 2021), defines key terms, sets the new western jurisdictional limit of the Port of Lowestoft, transfers assets and liabilities, transitions ongoing legal proceedings, and revokes certain provisions of the 1975 Order. The Order handles all legal mechanics of transitioning this lock between public authorities.

This Order merely facilitates an administrative transfer of jurisdiction between two public bodies (A.B. Ports and the Broads Authority). It imposes no regulatory burden on private actors, does not restrict trade or economic activity, and creates no compliance costs for businesses. Without such a legal mechanism, the transfer could not occur in an orderly manner, leaving legal uncertainty and potential chaos. The transfer of a specific lock between authorities is not a matter of economic regulation that restricts competition or trade.

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This Order appoints Simon Lebus as the Chief Regulator of Qualifications and Examinations (head of Ofqual) from 14th January 2021. It is a procedural appointment instrument.

Without this appointment, Ofqual would lack formal leadership, potentially creating regulatory uncertainty in the qualifications and examinations system. National examination integrity requires a designated regulatory authority; removing this appointment without abolishing the regulator would create a governance vacuum rather than reducing regulatory burden. The regulation itself imposes no restrictions—it merely fills an existing post.

These regulations amend the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 (Judicial Offices) Order 2015 to expand the specified judicial offices eligible for judicial pension scheme membership. They add new entries for various Welsh tribunal positions (Agricultural Land Tribunal for Wales, Health Service Products Appeals Tribunal, Welsh Language Tribunal, Rent Assessment Committees Wales, Adjudication Panel for Wales), insert provisions allowing the Lord Chancellor to modify regulations for certain persons, and add transitional provisions for offices held between 2015-2021. The regulations also rename National Security Certificate Tribunals in Northern Ireland to include 'Appeals'.

Expands membership in final-salary defined benefit pension schemes for tribunal offices, creating unfunded future liabilities for taxpayers. The repeated amendment of pension eligibility criteria for ever-more judicial offices reflects the fundamental problem with public sector pensions: promises made today that future taxpayers must honour regardless of fiscal conditions. There is no demonstrated link between generous tribunal pensions and justice outcomes. The regulations also codify a patchwork of Welsh-specific tribunals (Welsh Language Tribunal, Welsh Tribunals, etc.) that add bureaucratic complexity without corresponding benefit, and the Lord Chancellor's power to 'modify provisions by direction' in paragraph 1B creates executive discretion without parliamentary scrutiny.

Extends the Libya (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 to British Overseas Territories, applying UN Security Council travel ban measures against individuals designated under resolution 1970. Grants Governors discretionary power to grant exceptions with Secretary of State consent, subject to human rights and refugee convention safeguards. Revokes four earlier Orders.

UN sanctions represent international obligations under Security Council resolutions, but this Order extends inherited EU-era sanctions to overseas territories without evidence of systematic review. The travel ban mechanism restricts individual liberty with minimal accountability—Governors act 'in their discretion' with no independent oversight. The original 2011 sanctions were emergency measures during civil conflict; their indefinite retention without sunset provisions or periodic parliamentary review treats temporary measures as permanent. Deletion would restore democratic control and allow Parliament to re-impose only those sanctions genuinely serving UK interests.

This Order amends the Dogger Bank Teesside A and B Offshore Wind Farm Order 2015, updating technical specifications for an approved offshore wind farm project. Changes include: adding 'communication' to the wind turbine generator definition; revising work descriptions for Project B offshore works; increasing maximum hammer energy for pile installation from 3,000 to 4,000 kilojoules; inserting detailed foundation requirements for Work No. 1(B) including pile count limits, diameter limits, hammer energy thresholds, seabed footprint maximums, and wave reflection coefficient compliance; increasing fiber-optic cables from 1 to 2; and correcting cross-references to Marine Licence conditions.

As an amendment Order to an already-approved offshore wind farm project, this instrument primarily corrects errors and updates technical specifications in the original 2015 consent. Deleting it would leave the parent Order with internal inconsistencies (incorrect cross-references, superseded technical values) and reduced clarity for the operator. While some foundation specifications impose engineering constraints that could increase costs, these requirements address legitimate concerns around marine ecosystem protection and seabed disturbance that markets cannot adequately internalize without such standards. The increased hammer energy threshold (4,000kJ) and seabed footprint limits represent reasonable engineering boundaries that prevent potentially harmful installation practices. Without this amendment, compliance uncertainty and potential legal challenges would impose greater costs than the regulations themselves.

These rules amend the Criminal Procedure Rules 2020 with several changes: (1) updates to sentencing act references from the 2000 Act to the 2020 Act, (2) removal of EU mutual recognition provisions for bail and custody time limits post-Brexit, (3) new duties for parties to alert courts to impediments to defendant participation and related family proceedings, (4) enhanced provisions for court-to-court information sharing in family proceedings, (5) revised witness intermediary provisions and new defendant intermediary provisions to facilitate participation of those with communication difficulties, and (6) technical corrections to rule references and numbering.

These are procedural court rules governing criminal justice administration, not economic regulations. The Brexit-related deletions of EU mutual recognition mechanisms appropriately reflect post-exit regulatory independence. The new defendant intermediary provisions address a genuine problem ensuring those with mental disorders, disabilities or communication difficulties can effectively participate in their trials — without such provisions, vulnerable defendants could be unable to understand proceedings or instruct counsel, fundamentally undermining trial fairness. The alternative of deleting these rules would leave procedural gaps, create confusion through outdated cross-references, and remove safeguards that help achieve accurate verdicts. These rules impose no economic burden on businesses and concern core court administration where some procedural framework is essential.

Harbour Revision Order providing Shoreham Port Authority with powers to manage port operations including: definitions of port infrastructure, premises and operations; requirements for illustrative plans showing port limits; powers to issue general and special directions for navigation safety, person safety, property/fauna protection and port operations; consultation and adjudication procedures for general directions; enforcement provisions including Level 4 fines for non-compliance; amendments to previous Shoreham Port Authority Acts increasing certain fines to standard scale levels.

This Order creates extensive regulatory machinery including criminal penalties for non-compliance with administrative directions, mandatory consultation processes with designated bodies, and formal adjudication procedures for disputes—all layering compliance burden onto port operations without evidence the outcomes justify costs. While safety coordination has some legitimacy, the gold-plated EU-style procedural requirements (6-week consultation periods, independent adjudicators, newspaper notices) exceed what is necessary for effective port management. Britain’s maritime competitiveness is eroded when ports are burdened with bureaucratic requirements that New York, Singapore and Dubai do not impose, driving business away. The Order also perpetuates retained EU-derived regulatory structures that were never subject to proper democratic scrutiny. Port users and operators, not regulators, should contractually arrange safety matters.

These Regulations amend the Countryside Stewardship (England) Regulations 2020, making technical changes including: adding new woodland/pasture options under Uplands (wood pasture management, restoration, creation at £212-333/ha); inserting deer fencing gates (£271-344/unit); renaming 'Forestry' to '4A. Forestry'; expanding slurry store cover definitions to include anaerobic digestate; and adding a new Air Quality section with subsidies for automatic slurry scrapers (£2,760) and low ammonia emission flooring (£72/sq m). The amendments take effect 8th February 2021 and apply to England only.

Countryside Stewardship is a bureaucratic subsidy regime that distorts agricultural markets, restricts how private land may be used, and picks technological winners (specific slurry equipment, wood pasture methods) rather than letting farmers respond to market signals. The new Air Quality section compounds this by directing subsidies toward prescribed technologies. Post-Brexit Britain should abolish these payment-for-environmental-services schemes rather than expand them—farmers should face a regulatory environment where they can freely adapt their land use, and consumers should decide through markets what environmental outcomes are worth funding.

The Weymouth Harbour Revision Order 2021 establishes Dorset Council as the harbour authority for Weymouth Harbour, defining harbour limits, incorporating Victorian-era harbour legislation (1847-1914), and granting powers for harbour management including: making byelaws, setting harbour charges, issuing navigational directions, maintaining reserve funds, and borrowing powers. The Order covers the harbour area including Weymouth Bay and the River Wey, and establishes procedures for consulting designated maritime bodies on general directions for navigation safety and environmental protection.

This is a local harbour management order specific to Weymouth Harbour, not an EU-derived regulation or gold-plating. Without this Order, there would be no coherent legal framework for managing the harbour, collecting vital revenue for maintenance, or ensuring navigational safety. The byelaws require Secretary of State approval, charges are subject to statutory objection procedures, and the Order primarily benefits actual harbour users rather than imposing broad societal costs. Deletion would leave the harbour without proper jurisdiction, safety protocols, or financial structure, harming those who rely on it for commerce, recreation, and maritime operations.

This Order amends the Tax Credits Act 2002 to insert section 21C, creating a new late review mechanism for tax credits decisions when a person subsequently becomes entitled to a relevant disability benefit (such as personal independence payment, disability living allowance, or employment and support allowance). It allows HMRC to review decisions within one month of a disability benefit claim being determined, solely to consider whether to uphold, vary, or cancel the original decision based on the new disability entitlement.

This regulation adds yet another layer of bureaucratic process to an already over-complex tax credits system. It creates a perpetual open-ended review window for anyone who subsequently acquires a disability benefit, incentivizing retrospective gaming of awards rather than ensuring accurate initial decisions. The administrative burden on HMRC of processing these late reviews, combined with the complexity of cross-referencing multiple benefit systems, adds cost with no corresponding economic productivity gain. Such grandfathered EU-era procedural rights should be swept away as part of post-Brexit regulatory spring cleaning.

This Harbour Revision Order authorises The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company to extend Liverpool's cruise terminal infrastructure. It permits demolition of existing Princes Jetty structures, construction of a new 10,000m2 cruise terminal building, linkspan bridges, floating pontoon, modifications to existing landing stages, and replacement of mooring dolphins. The Order grants powers to deviate from approved plans, establishes navigation safety requirements during construction and operation, and creates enforcement mechanisms including criminal penalties for obstruction or non-compliance with Trinity House directions.

This Order facilitates rather than restricts economic activity — it is an enabling instrument for port infrastructure development that creates tangible benefits for Liverpool's economy and UK maritime trade. While it grants special powers to a single company, ports are natural monopolies where centralised coordination is necessary. The navigation safety provisions (lights, buoys, Trinity House oversight) address genuine public goods that private markets would underprovide. Without this Order, the cruise terminal expansion could not proceed, costing jobs and trade competitiveness relative to rival ports. The 10-year completion deadline prevents indefinite monopoly grants.