Browse regulations

Post-Brexit amendment to the Carriage of Dangerous Goods Regulations 2009 that creates a dual-track regime for transportable pressure equipment in Great Britain, distinguishing between UK TPE, Northern Ireland TPE, and legacy pi marked TPE. Introduces restrictions on market access after 1 January 2023, requirements for conformity assessment transfers to appointed bodies, and obligations for manufacturers, importers, and distributors regarding equipment compliance.

While necessitated by the Northern Ireland Protocol, this regulation codifies protectionist market restrictions that: (1) ban perfectly safe equipment from EU states that was legally placed on the market before Brexit; (2) impose costly conformity assessment transfer requirements that serve no safety purpose when equipment was already assessed; (3) create dual-track regulatory burden distinguishing Northern Ireland goods that adds compliance costs without corresponding safety benefits; (4) restrict free trade in second-hand equipment by grandfathering only pre-2023 pi marked goods. The regulation's core effect is to artificially segment the transportable pressure equipment market and raise costs for British businesses and consumers, without achieving outcomes that could not be obtained through less restrictive means such as recognizing EU conformity assessments directly.

These Regulations (SI 2021/1332) amended the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021 to introduce Regulation 3ZA, requiring persons arriving in England from outside the Common Travel Area to possess valid notification of a negative COVID-19 test result. The regulations also made related amendments to testing schedules, self-isolation enforcement, and passenger travel guidance, effectively maintaining and slightly relaxing COVID-19 travel restrictions as of December 2021.

These regulations perpetuate a fundamentally flawed framework of COVID-19 travel restrictions that restrict international movement of people—a key factor of production—without evidence of meaningful public health benefit. The testing requirements impose substantial compliance costs on travelers, airlines, and transport operators, distort travel decisions, and create competitive disadvantage versus jurisdictions with fewer restrictions. The regulations represent emergency legislation that bypassed normal parliamentary scrutiny; their retention merely preserves costly bureaucratic requirements on free movement. The pre-existing Passenger Locator Form regime was itself a response to an emergency that has passed, and these restrictions are not needed to achieve any outcome that cannot be achieved through less coercive means such as voluntary testing and private契约 arrangements.

A commencement order bringing into force provisions of the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 (Seni's Law) on 31st March 2022. The regulations activate requirements for mental health units including: having a responsible person, adopting a use of force policy, providing training, recording use of force incidents, publishing information, and investigating deaths or serious injuries.

This commencement order activates a costly regulatory regime that will reduce supply in the mental health sector, increase administrative burden on providers, and create perverse incentives around documentation rather than patient outcomes. The regulation's compliance costs will be passed to patients and taxpayers. Information and accountability requirements, while superficially beneficial, can be achieved through private accreditation, insurance requirements, and contractual transparency clauses between providers and commissioners — without the rigidity and unintended consequences of statutory mandates.

These Regulations are commencement regulations that bring various provisions of the Trade Union Act 2016 into force on specific dates (8th December 2021 and 1st April 2022). They cover the Certification Officer's new investigatory powers, enforcement order mechanisms, levy imposition authority, and appeal rights limitations. The Regulations also contain extensive transitional provisions specifying that most new powers and amendments apply only to failures occurring on or after 1st April 2022.

These Regulations extend the Certification Officer's coercive apparatus over trade unions without market-based justification. The investigatory powers, enforcement orders, and levy mechanisms create regulatory costs that distort labor market voluntary arrangements. The limitation of appeals to questions of law restricts due process. The transitional provisions ensure existing arrangements are grandfathered while new restrictions apply going forward—preserving regulatory burden rather than reducing it. As commencement regulations, they add no beneficial transitional coordination that couldn't be achieved through alternative means; their deletion would simply delay implementation of already-enacted provisions while the underlying policy debate continues.

These Regulations modify the Statistics of Trade (Customs and Excise) Regulations 1992 by lowering the VAT return threshold for goods arriving from EU member states to Northern Ireland from £1,500,000 to £500,000, effective 1st January 2022. The modification applies specifically to EU-to-Northern Ireland trade flows under the Northern Ireland Protocol arrangement.

This regulation increases regulatory burden by lowering the reporting threshold, capturing more businesses in customs statistics reporting requirements. The arbitrary reduction from £1.5m to £500k lacks clear economic justification and adds compliance costs for smaller traders without demonstrated benefit. Post-Brexit trade data can be collected through less burdensome means such as customs declarations already required, avoiding unnecessary duplication of reporting obligations that deter SME participation in EU-Northern Ireland trade.

These Regulations amend the Customs (Managed Transition Procedure) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, extending the transition period from 12 to 24 months. They establish procedures for accounting for import VAT on goods imported into the UK under the free-circulation procedure, allowing eligible VAT-registered persons to declare import VAT on their VAT returns rather than paying at the border. The Regulations modify various provisions of VATA 1994 and related VAT Regulations for this purpose.

This is a transitional mechanism designed to manage the temporary period after Brexit when businesses were adjusting to new customs procedures. By design, it is time-limited (extended from 12 to 24 months) and was always intended to eventually lapse. Furthermore, the underlying Managed Transition Procedure regime represents government intervention in natural trade flows, adding compliance complexity that favors established large businesses over smaller traders. Now that Brexit has been completed, these transitional arrangements should be deleted entirely rather than perpetuated as permanent law.

These Regulations make consequential amendments to financial services legislation following the Financial Services Act 2021, primarily: (1) adding 'investment holding company' to definitions of financial institutions in insolvency legislation across all UK jurisdictions; (2) substituting references to EU-based capital requirements regulation with UK PRA Rulebook provisions; (3) replacing 'appropriate regulator' with specific references to the PRA; (4) introducing 'CRR rules' as a new category alongside the capital requirements regulation; (5) extending implementation dates from 'IP completion day' to 1 January 2022; and (6) making miscellaneous amendments to ensure UK regulatory definitions operate post-Brexit.

While these amendments make technical improvements by clarifying UK-specific definitions and reducing reliance on EU-derived concepts where appropriate, the instrument fundamentally preserves an extensive framework of prudential regulation without meaningful liberalisation. The regulations maintain consolidated supervision requirements, capital buffer rules, liquidity requirements, and supervisory powers that drive compliance costs for financial institutions. The addition of 'investment holding company' to financial institution definitions actually expands regulatory scope. The shift from 'appropriate regulator' to specifically 'PRA' narrows regulatory discretion without reducing burden. Most critically, this amendment regime was inherited wholesale from EU frameworks with no democratic review—the very problem Better Britain seeks to address. Deletion would signal intent to reconsider these prudential requirements rather than merely relabel them.

These are minor amendment regulations that update the Electronic Communications (Universal Service) (Costs) Regulations 2020 by adding a definition of 'public funds' (meaning money provided by Parliament) and replacing the term 'central funds' with 'public funds' in three specified regulations. The amendments are purely definitional/terminological in nature.

This regulation makes no substantive changes to regulatory burden or market activity. It merely updates terminology to reflect parliamentary nomenclature. Deletion would revert to the previous 'central funds' terminology without affecting any rights, obligations, or market dynamics. Britons would be no worse or better off either way, but retaining clean, current terminology serves clarity and avoids unnecessary legislative confusion.

Amends the Coroners (Inquest) Rules 2013 by omitting note (iii) from Form 2 (Record of an inquest) which previously contained guidance on 'The standard of proof'. A minor deregulatory amendment removing explanatory guidance from an administrative form used to record inquest conclusions.

This amendment removes helpful guidance explaining the different standards of proof applicable to various inquest conclusions (balance of probabilities vs beyond reasonable doubt). While the information exists in case law, having it on the form itself served a practical purpose for coroners completing records. The original 2013 Rules imposed this guidance as part of the form itself, creating no meaningful burden — merely ensuring practitioners understand legal standards. Removing the note makes the form less self-contained and could lead to errors in how conclusions are recorded, without delivering any corresponding benefit.

This Order modifies three Rent Officers Orders to: (1) change the effective dates for broad rental market area determinations to April 1st (or next Monday for Universal Credit), and (2) freeze local housing allowances at their March 31, 2020 values for 2022 determinations. It applies to England, Wales, and Scotland.

This Order perpetuates government price-fixing of housing allowances, freezing benefit caps below market rates. Such price controls distort landlord-tenant matching, reduce housing availability for benefit claimants, and create artificial shortages. The freeze mechanism prevents market signals from reaching either landlords or tenants, allocating housing through political determination rather than price discovery. While deletion would restore slightly more current rates, the fundamental flaw is that the underlying LHA system itself—retained EU law—imposes government-set rent ceilings that inherently suppress supply and create housing shortages in the very segment most vulnerable citizens depend upon.

Amendment Regulations 2021 making technical corrections to the Schedule of the Antique Firearms Regulations 2021, including spelling corrections (Caliber→Calibre, Nordenfeldt→Nordenfelt), punctuation/formatting fixes (.30/30→.30-30, adding mm units), removal of redundant reference numbers, and a simplification of bore definitions for vintage rifles and shotguns.

These Amendment Regulations impose no additional regulatory burden—they merely correct typographical errors, standardize formatting, and clarify ambiguous entries in the Schedule. Deleting them would leave the principal Regulations riddled with inconsistencies (misspellings, missing units, formatting errors) that would create confusion for enforcement authorities and firearms dealers without reducing any substantive restriction. The changes are purely technical corrections that improve legal clarity without expanding the scope of firearms regulation.

Amendment to COVID-19 self-isolation regulations in England, modifying exemption criteria based on vaccination status, clinical trial participation, and medical contraindications. The regulations establish detailed proof requirements for vaccination exemptions from self-isolation, reference EU Digital COVID Certificates, and cross-refer extensively to International Travel Regulations.

COVID-era emergency regulations imposing self-isolation requirements and vaccine passports that restrict personal liberty. These regulations encode vaccine documentation requirements (NHS COVID passes, EU Digital COVID Certificates, CDC vaccination cards) that create two-tier treatment based on health status. The extensive definitional complexity referencing International Travel Regulations and EU frameworks adds bureaucratic burden with no clear economic benefit. As emergency pandemic measures now obsolete (2026), these should be deleted rather than retained as permanent statute. The regulatory framework distorts incentives by creating advantages for the vaccinated and effectively mandates health documentation for daily activities.

Grants The London Institute of Banking & Finance competence to award taught degrees (as defined under s.42(2)(a) and 42(3) of the relevant Act) for an indefinite period, and authorizes the Institute to permit other institutions to grant such awards on its behalf.

Degree-awarding powers are state-granted monopolies that restrict supply in higher education, drive credential inflation, and increase costs for students. This Order perpetuates the artificial scarcity of degree-issuing authority by ceding it to a single institution rather than allowing market competition in educational credentials. The Institute's power to authorize other institutions creates additional layers of regulatory barrier to entry in higher education delivery.

These Regulations exempt compensation payments made under the London Capital & Finance (LCF) Compensation Scheme from capital gains tax. They designate such payments as 'qualifying payments' under Schedule 15 of the Finance Act 2020, with effect from 20th October 2021. The LCF Compensation Scheme was established by HM Treasury to compensate customers of the collapsed London Capital & Finance plc, following the Gloster Report into FCA regulatory failures.

Without this exemption, LCF investors who suffered losses and received compensation would face capital gains tax bills on payments that merely restore their capital position, not generate profits. This corrects an inherent unfairness where victims of regulatory failure would be taxed as though they had earned gains. The compensation represents a return of capital, not a taxable gain.

The Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Act 2011 (Continuation) Order 2021 extends the Secretary of State's TPIM powers until 13th December 2026. TPIMs are administrative measures allowing restrictions (movement, residence, reporting, financial) on suspected terrorists without criminal trial. This Order continues powers that would otherwise have expired under the 2011 Act or the 2016 Continuation Order.

While TPIMs represent significant restrictions on individual liberty, the economic harm from their removal would be substantial if it resulted in increased terrorism. Terrorist incidents cause massive economic disruption through direct damage, insurance costs, tourism decline, and reduced business confidence. Unlike typical EU-era regulations that distort markets and create compliance costs, TPIMs serve a genuine security function. The risk of terrorism causing economic harm to millions of Britons outweighs the cost of these measures being applied to a small number of individuals. Proper parliamentary oversight and sunset clauses ensure accountability.