Browse regulations

Amendment to Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 that adds two carve-outs to Schedule 2 (capital to be disregarded): (1) payments disregarded under Victims' Payments Regulations 2020, and (2) compensation payments under Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019. These provisions prevent certain compensation payments from being counted as capital when assessing adult social care charges.

Without these provisions, victims of institutional abuse and certain crimes would see their compensation payments counted as capital, reducing their care entitlements or increasing their charges — effectively penalising the innocent victims of serious wrongs. While means-tested care charging involves government intervention, these narrow, targeted carve-outs for specific, formally-recognised categories of victims do not constitute the kind of broad regulatory burden or market distortion this body's mandate addresses.

Extension of temporary COVID-19 insolvency protections in the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act 2020, pushing back the relevant period end date from 30 June 2021 to 30 September 2021 for winding-up petition restrictions in Great Britain.

This regulation extended emergency COVID-19 insolvency measures that have long since expired. Temporary pandemic interventions that repeatedly extend create permanent precedents for regulatory intervention in normal market discipline. The repeated extensions of these protections (from original dates through September 2021 and likely beyond) illustrate regulatory drift — emergency measures never sunset as intended. Keeping such spent interventions on the books normalizes the principle that companies should be shielded from normal commercial consequences, distorting creditor-debtor relationships and weakening market discipline. By 2026, this regulation serves no current purpose but contributes to the accumulated clutter of EU-derived and emergency legislation that undermines legal clarity and free-market principles.

Amends the Motor Vehicles (International Motor Insurance Card) Regulations 1971 to introduce a new Schedule 1 and renumber the existing Schedule as Schedule 2, with Schedule 2 valid until 31st December 2022. Also adds provisions permitting Foreign Bureau or British Bureau logos on insurance cards and updates regulation references from 'the Schedule' to 'Schedules 1 and 2'.

This amendment merely provides administrative flexibility during a transitional period for the International Motor Insurance Card (Green Card) system, which facilitates cross-border motor insurance verification between countries. The 1971 base regulations establish a useful multilateral arrangement that reduces friction for British drivers traveling abroad and foreign drivers entering Britain. Deleting this amendment would create confusion by leaving incorrect schedule references in the 1971 Regulations without any benefit — Britons would lose the transitional extension and clearer administrative structure. The underlying Green Card system, while involving bureaux, functions as a market-facilitating arrangement rather than a restrictive regulatory burden.

This Order, made on 13th July 2021, amends the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 (Specified Proceedings) Order 1999 to designate COVID-19 offences under two Health Protection Regulations (Restrictions on Steps and International Travel) as 'specified proceedings' eligible for expedited court treatment. It adds paragraphs 16Z3 and 16Z4 to the Schedule.

These amendments added coronavirus restriction offences to expedited proceedings precisely when the evidence on COVID-19 regulations' costs was becoming clear. By July 2021, these restrictions had inflicted severe economic damage, with the hospitality, travel, and entertainment sectors decimated. The 'specified proceedings' mechanism accelerates prosecutions for those who breached movement and travel restrictions—restrictions that proved to be blunt instruments with massive unintended consequences for businesses and individual liberty. Rather than facilitating faster punishment of people for violating ill-conceived rules, this amendment should be deleted as part of restoring Britain's tradition of measured, proportionate law rather than emergency decree-based governance.

These Regulations are a commencement order bringing into force various provisions of the Criminal Finances Act 2017 in Northern Ireland, England and Wales, and Scotland on 28th June 2021. They cover unexplained wealth orders, disclosure orders, forfeiture powers, SFO powers, and related amendments to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

This is a purely procedural commencement regulation that activates provisions of the Criminal Finances Act 2017, which was duly passed by Parliament. Deleting it would simply leave the underlying Act's provisions in limbo, uncommenced and unenforceable. The regulation performs an essential administrative function; the policy merits of the underlying Act are a matter for primary legislation, not this instrument.

These Regulations (SI 2021/622) bring into operation a revised code of practice under section 303G of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, governing search powers for recovery of listed assets. They revoke and replace the 2018 Regulations, with the new code effective 28th June 2021.

State asset seizure powers represent government overreach into property rights. Such regulations create perverse incentives where authorities may seize assets without adequate due process safeguards, deterring legitimate economic activity and creating legal uncertainty. The expansion of search and forfeiture powers expands state authority at the expense of individual liberty, with poor procedural safeguards enabling potential abuse. The regulatory burden and compliance costs outweigh purported benefits.

This Order (SI 2021/735) brings into force a revised Code of Practice under section 292 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 governing law enforcement's use of cash search and seizure powers. It revokes the 2018 version and came into force on 28th June 2021. The code provides operational guidance on how police may search persons and premises and seize cash suspected to be criminal proceeds.

While this code of practice provides guidance on exercising cash search powers under POCA 2002, it is merely a procedural instrument bringing a non-binding code into effect. The real problem is the underlying statute itself: section 292 permits seizure of cash based on suspicion with the burden of proof reversed onto the owner. This particularly harms cash-based legitimate businesses (restaurants, markets, corner shops) who face disruption and must prove their own innocence. The code of practice does not change the fundamental nature of these powers — it merely provides operational guidance that may make their exercise more palatable without constraining their scope. As Hayek noted, regulative frameworks that concentrate discretionary power inevitably lead to arbitrariness. A code of practice cannot remedy structural overreach inherent in the enabling statute. Removing this Order would not eliminate the underlying powers but would remove official sanction for a guidance framework that legitimises invasive seizure authority without fundamental reform.

These 2021 Regulations implement Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with Australia, New Zealand, USA, Korea, Japan, Canada, and Switzerland by establishing a framework for recognising conformity assessment results from MRA bodies, designating UK conformity assessment bodies, maintaining registers, and sharing information with partner countries. Additionally, they amend the Weights and Measures (Intoxicating Liquor) Order 1988 to permit single distilled shochu to be sold in 720ml, 900ml, or 1800ml containers, and omit an obsolete EU regulation provision.

The MRA framework reduces trade barriers by allowing UK exporters to obtain certification once and access multiple markets without duplicative testing—despite bureaucratic overhead, it Net reduces compliance costs for UK businesses seeking international trade. The weights and measures amendment merely updates product specifications to reflect an agreed international standard and removes an obsolete EU provision. Without this regulatory infrastructure, UK businesses would face fragmented, costlier market access.

This is the third amendment to the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021, effective June 22, 2021. The regulations amended COVID-19 international travel requirements including: adding exemptions for Euro 2020 invitees (UEFA/FIFA officials, sponsors, football association executives); Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy travellers; expanding the definition of 'relevant international event' to include G7, COP Ministerial, and Global Education Summit events; modifying operator liability provisions; and adjusting penalty structures for breaches of testing/self-isolation requirements.

These COVID-19 travel restrictions were emergency pandemic measures that have long since expired. The original regulations represented exactly the bureaucratic overreach Better Britain opposes: restricting freedom of movement, imposing compliance costs on travellers and operators, and creating arbitrary exemptions for politically favoured groups (sports executives, summit attendees) while ordinary citizens faced blanket prohibitions. The Afghan Relocations policy exemption, though humanitarian in intent, should have been handled through separate immigration legislation rather than buried in health regulations. As retained EU law, this was inherited without proper parliamentary scrutiny. By 2026, these pandemic-era restrictions are wholly obsolete and should be deleted entirely rather than remain on the statute book as potential precedent for future emergencies.

Temporary COVID-19 regulation specifying 25th March 2022 as the end date for business tenant protections from forfeiture (eviction for non-payment of rent) under section 82(12) of the Coronavirus Act 2020. Revokes earlier 2021 version of these regulations.

This is inherently temporary pandemic emergency legislation that has served its purpose. The specified end date of 25th March 2022 has passed, making the regulation functionally obsolete. While the intervention was arguably justified during the acute COVID crisis, maintaining such interference in private contractual relationships beyond necessity distorts the rental market, undermines property rights, and creates moral hazard. Post-pandemic, the market should be allowed to clear naturally without ongoing government mandates favoring one contracting party over another.

This Order authorizes the Secretary of State to make payments not exceeding £117.64 million to the Asian Development Fund as the UK's contribution to the Twelfth Replenishment, and to redeem any associated non-interest-bearing notes or obligations issued to the Fund, pursuant to the International Development Act 2002.

This instrument facilitates the transfer of £117.64 million of British taxpayers' money to a multilateral development fund, representing an ongoing commitment to foreign aid at a time when domestic infrastructure, housing, and public services face severe constraints. The UK's own planning permission regime and regulatory environment already restrict domestic supply and competitiveness. Furthermore, multilateral development funds are prone to inefficiency, bureaucratic overhead, and misallocation of capital — problems Mises identified with centrally planned allocation of resources. The Asian Development Bank's resources are directed by committee decisions insulated from market discipline, making it difficult to assess whether capital is deployed productively. The mechanism by which UK contributions are made — through the Secretary of State accepting obligations on behalf of the Fund — also embeds the state in cross-border wealth redistribution that diverts resources from private investment in Britain.

This Order enables the Secretary of State to make UK contributions to the Caribbean Development Bank's Special Development Fund (Unified), authorizing payments up to £21 million plus redemption of any associated non-interest-bearing notes, pursuant to the International Development Act 2002 and the UK's obligations under the 1969 Agreement establishing the Bank.

International development transfers through multilateral institutions suffer from well-documented inefficiencies, bureaucratic overhead, and distortion of local markets they claim to help. £21 million in forced taxpayer transfers to foreign governments represents an infringement of individual property rights. Post-Brexit Britain should not be bound by financial commitments made under EU-influenced international frameworks; the UK's colonial-era ties to the Caribbean do not create ongoing obligations to transfer wealth. Domestic British taxpayers facing housing crises and infrastructure deficits are better placed to allocate this capital than Caribbean bureaucrats.

These Regulations extended the review period under section 81(3) of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 regarding processing of victims' personal data for immigration purposes, pushing the deadline from 29th June 2021 to 29th December 2021. The Regulations applied to England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

These Regulations are entirely obsolete - the extended relevant period (29th December 2021) has long since passed. This was a purely administrative time-extension of a review deadline with no ongoing legal effect. Furthermore, section 81 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 itself creates problematic data-sharing regimes between domestic abuse victim services and immigration authorities, potentially deterring vulnerable undocumented individuals from seeking protection - a classic unintended consequence of well-intentioned regulation.

These are the Financial Services Act 2021 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2021, a purely procedural instrument specifying the dates on which various provisions of the Financial Services Act 2021 come into force. The provisions cover benchmarks regulation, investment services, FCA permission variations, consumer care rules, anti-money laundering for overseas trustees, consumer credit amendments, PRIIPs regulation changes, Market Abuse Regulation data retention, OTC derivatives clearing and reporting, and related consequential amendments.

This is a commencement regulation containing no substantive requirements—merely operative dates for primary legislation. Deleting it would prevent scheduled provisions from taking effect, creating legal uncertainty and operational chaos without reducing any regulatory burden, since the underlying FSA 2021 provisions remain in force regardless.

These regulations appoint specific dates for when provisions of Schedule 11 to the Finance Act 2020 come into force in Northern Ireland. They designate 29th June 2021 for regulatory-making powers under Hydrocarbon Oil Duties Act 1979, and 1st October 2021 for all other Schedule 11 provisions.

This is a purely procedural regulation that merely appoints commencement dates for provisions already enacted by Parliament in the Finance Act 2020. It creates no regulatory burden itself and serves a necessary administrative function. Deleting it would create legal uncertainty regarding the operative dates of the underlying provisions, which concern Hydrocarbon Oil Duties. As a machinery provision that simply activates already-legislated measures on specific dates, it cannot be deleted without creating a gap in the legal framework.