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Order of Council 2020 that brings into force the Nursing and Midwifery Council (Emergency Procedures) (Amendment) Rules 2020, effective 31st March 2020. This is a procedural instrument that provides the formal parliamentary mechanism for approving the underlying Rules.

This Order is merely the formal approval mechanism for the underlying Rules—it contains no substantive regulatory burden itself. Deleting it would create a constitutional procedural void, as Orders of Council are the required parliamentary procedure for bringing NMC rules into effect. The substantive emergency procedures rules (separate from this Order) would need independent review for their regulatory merit, but this procedural instrument is structurally necessary for lawful governance of the nursing and midwifery profession.

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Temporary COVID-19 regulations enacted March 2020 providing: modifications to Universal Credit minimum income floor (allowing Secretary of State to reduce thresholds to zero, delay/ignore self-employment determinations, extend start-up periods, exempt claimants from work requirements); increased Universal Credit standard allowance amounts (£342.72-£594.04 depending on age/couple status); updated Local Housing Allowance determinations effective March 2020; increased earnings disregards in Housing Benefit (£17.10 to £37.10); suspension of work search requirements for new style JSA and Universal Credit claimants; treatment of old style JSA claimants as available/actively seeking employment; capability for work provisions for infected/isolating JSA claimants; and temporary carer's allowance provisions where either carer or disabled person is unable due to COVID-19. Many provisions included explicit sunset clauses tied to 2021 dates.

These were explicitly temporary emergency COVID-19 measures, with multiple regulations containing built-in expiration dates (regulation 3 expires July 2021, regulations 8-9 expire August 2021). The pandemic context has fundamentally changed. Keeping expired emergency regulations on the books creates legal confusion and sets a precedent for permanent retention of temporary crisis measures. The minimum income floor modifications discouraged self-employment and work effort. The housing benefit cap at specific percentile levels distorted rental markets. The work search requirement suspensions, while understandable in crisis, created disincentives to work that persisted beyond necessity. These regulations represent the worst of emergency overreach - measures that should have been allowed to sunset completely rather than remain as zombie legislation.

Amends the Pensions Act 2008 to update the lower threshold of the qualifying earnings band for automatic pension enrolment from £6,136 to £6,240, effective 6th April 2020. Also revokes articles 2(a) and 3 of the 2019 Order.

Automatic enrolment mandates employer involvement in private savings decisions, distorting labor costs particularly for lower earners. The qualifying earnings band creates perverse cliff effects where small income changes can shift full contribution liability. While behavioral economics justifies some retirement saving requirements, the fundamental approach should be to maximize individual choice rather than mandate specific savings vehicles through employer withholding mechanisms. The threshold adjustments represent continued government control over private savings rather than freeing individuals to make their own arrangements.

Amends the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 by inserting paragraph 22E into Schedule A1, requiring real time returns to include, where applicable, an indication that a payment relates to an engagement under Chapter 10, Part 2 of ITEPA by virtue of section 61M(1).

This regulation adds yet another reporting requirement to the PAYE system, contributing to the cumulative compliance burden on employers without clear demonstrable benefit. The obligation to indicate 'if applicable' is vague and creates inconsistent compliance obligations. Such incremental additions to tax reporting requirements, while each may seem minor, collectively increase administrative costs, create uncertainty, and provide no corresponding increase in tax revenue or compliance effectiveness. The original 2003 PAYE Regulations were already complex; this amendment exemplifies the pattern of layering new requirements without systematic review of whether the overall framework remains fit for purpose.

Temporary COVID-19 regulations that suspended the 3-day waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay eligibility for coronavirus-related incapacity, effective from 13th March 2020. Also amended SSP (General) Regulations 1982 by replacing Public Health England guidance references with a Schedule, removed the Public Health England definition, and omitted expiry provisions from earlier coronavirus amendment regulations.

This was a time-limited emergency measure enacted during the acute COVID-19 pandemic phase. The suspension of waiting days for coronavirus-related SSP has served its purpose and is no longer needed. The reference to Public Health England (which was abolished in 2021) is anachronistic and the overall framework has been superseded by subsequent reforms. The regulation provides no ongoing benefit that justifies its retention on the statute book.

The Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Order 2020 is a temporary COVID-19 emergency measure that amended the Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012 to extend validity periods and deadlines for pre-registrations and preliminary accreditations for renewable energy installations (solar PV, wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion). The amendment provided extensions until 30th September 2020 for accreditations that would otherwise expire during the pandemic period (March-September 2020).

This amendment is entirely time-limited and is now functus officio — all its extensions expired on 30th September 2020. More fundamentally, Feed-in Tariffs represent government price-fixing in the energy market, distorting investment signals and subsidizing particular technologies at taxpayers' expense. Rather than merely extending an already-expiring COVID provision, the better course would be to allow this amendment to lapse and revisit the underlying FIT regime, which crowds out private innovation in favour of politically-favoured renewable technologies.

Amends the District Probate Registries Order 1982 by removing references to 'column 1 of', omitting article 3 entirely, removing 'district probate sub-registry' language, eliminating the 'Column 1' heading and 'Birmingham' entry, and omitting column 2 of the Schedule — effectively streamlining and simplifying the structure of district probate registries.

This amendment Order does not impose regulatory burdens on private actors or restrict competition — it merely simplifies and modernises the administrative structure of publicly-run probate registries by removing obsolete references and redundant columns. Removing these technical references causes no compliance costs, creates no barriers to entry, and does not distort market incentives. Deleting this would leave the more cluttered 1982 Order in force without justification.

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These Regulations amend the Motor Vehicles (Tests) Regulations 1981 to provide temporary coronavirus-related exemptions from MOT testing requirements. Vehicles (except public service vehicles) whose MOT was due between 31st March 2020 and 31st March 2021 were granted a 6-month exemption period. The regulation also removed some existing exemptions (xxix) and (1B).

This regulation was a time-limited COVID-19 emergency response from 2020-2021, allowing vehicles to bypass MOT requirements during lockdowns when testing was unavailable. The exemption period has long since expired and normal testing requirements have been restored. Keeping obsolete emergency regulations on the books creates legal clutter and sets a poor precedent of retaining temporary measures indefinitely. The MOT system itself, while addressing road safety, also represents a state-mandated monopoly on vehicle testing that could benefit from reform rather than emergency patches.

These regulations amend the Judicial Pensions Regulations 2015 and Judicial Pensions (Fee-Paid Judges) Regulations 2017 to update contribution tables for judicial pensions and add CPI-based automatic inflation adjustments for pensionable earnings thresholds. They set tiered contribution rates (4.6% to 8.05% for pension scheme members, and separate rates for fee-paid judges) with annual CPI adjustments for threshold bands (except £150,001+).

These regulations govern judicial pension contributions—an internal government compensation scheme for judges, not a regulatory burden on private enterprise or the broader economy. Deleting them would not enhance economic freedom; it would merely disrupt public sector compensation structures. The regulations do not impose costs on businesses, restrict trade, or distort market incentives in the manner of economic regulations affecting the private sector. Their primary effect is determining how much judges contribute to their own pension schemes and how thresholds adjust with inflation—a technical matter of public employment terms that does not materially affect Britain's economic dynamism or global competitiveness.

This Order amends the fee-setting power under section 8(7) of the Private Security Industry Act 2001, requiring the Secretary of State to take into account the recovery of any deficit incurred by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) when prescribing licence fees. The SIA's functions covered are those relating to licences for engaging in licensable conduct under sections 1(2)(a) and 8 of the 2001 Act.

This Order perpetuates a structurally flawed cost-recovery model that creates perverse incentives in regulatory governance. By legally requiring fee-setting to account for deficit recovery, it ensures the regulated industry funds its own regulator in a closed loop that risks regulatory capture — where the SIA's financial health becomes dependent on maintaining or expanding licensing activity rather than critically assessing whether its regulatory interventions remain justified. The underlying licensing regime itself restricts market entry in the private security sector, raising fundamental competition concerns. A genuine free market in private security services would see far less regulatory overhead; companies already bear liability for their employees' conduct through tort law and can be held responsible for failures in vetting. Furthermore, this Order was retained post-Brexit as part of the EU-derived regulatory corpus without democratic scrutiny, representing exactly the kind of unexamined bureaucratic inheritance Better Britain seeks to eliminate.

These Regulations commence section 15 (local authority care and support) and Part 1 of Schedule 12 (powers and duties of local authorities in England) of the Coronavirus Act 2020, effective 31st March 2020. They apply to England only.

This regulation commenced emergency COVID-19 powers for local authorities in social care that expanded state control without adequate parliamentary scrutiny — passed under emergency conditions with minimal debate. The underlying provisions granted local authorities sweeping new powers and duties that distorted care market incentives, crowded out private provision, and created conditions conducive to monopolistic service delivery. The pandemic response revealed how state-dominated care systems lacked resilience and innovation. Deleting this commencement regulation would signal a commitment to restoring democratic oversight of regulatory expansion and reversing the trend toward state control in healthcare and social care.

The Offshore Installations (Safety Zones) Order 2020 establishes 500-metre safety exclusion zones around specified offshore oil and gas installations under the Petroleum Act 1987. It also contains technical corrections to coordinate errors in the 2019 Orders. Safety zones prevent unauthorized vessel approach, anchoring, and potential collision or damage to offshore installations.

Safety zones around offshore installations serve a legitimate protective function preventing collisions, anchor damage to subsea infrastructure, and hazards to personnel. The 500-metre radius is consistent with international maritime safety norms. Without such zones, Britain would face increased risks of maritime accidents near dangerous industrial infrastructure with no adequate alternative mechanism to achieve the same safety outcome. The regulation is narrowly targeted at specific listed installations by precise coordinates, not a broad regulatory burden.

These 2020 Regulations extend retention of fingerprints and DNA profiles for national security purposes during COVID-19. They permit an additional 6-month retention period when existing national security determinations or retention periods would otherwise expire, and when destruction requirements would otherwise arise during the 6 months after commencement. The Regulations apply to terrorism-related biometric data retained under the Terrorism Act 2000, Counter-Terrorism Act 2008, and related provisions.

These Regulations were emergency COVID-era legislation enabling indefinite extension of biometric data retention without meaningful parliamentary oversight or judicial authorisation. They entrench executive discretion to prolong surveillance powers beyond original statutory limits, establishing a dangerous precedent for bureaucratic self-extension. The national security determination mechanism bypasses independent judicial review. The COVID emergency justification is now obsolete, yet the Regulations remain as permanent enablement of retention extensions. No sunset clause or parliamentary renewal mechanism exists. Deletion restores proper democratic control over biometric data retention policy and prevents mission creep of surveillance infrastructure.