Browse regulations

Temporary pandemic regulations (effective April 4, 2020, applying to meetings before May 7, 2021) enabling local authorities and police and crime panels in England and Wales to hold meetings remotely via video conferencing, telephone, or webcast. They modify notice requirements, voting procedures, and public access provisions to accommodate remote participation, and allow meetings to be held without the usual physical presence requirements.

Regulation was explicitly designed as a time-limited emergency response to COVID-19, with a built-in expiry date of May 7, 2021. It represents wholesale suspension of established meeting procedures without the usual democratic scrutiny. The regulatory framework created to enable remote attendance (including definitions of 'remote access,' conditions for 'remote attendance,' and modifications to dozens of other enactments) imposes lasting bureaucratic complexity on local government operations. While emergency circumstances may have justified temporary flexibility, permanent codification of these provisions is inappropriate given the narrow window for which they were intended. Subsequent legislation and changed public health circumstances have rendered this regulation obsolete.

Emergency regulations enacted on 7th April 2020 to postpone local elections, mayoral elections, police and crime commissioner elections, and referendums originally scheduled during the COVID-19 pandemic period (16th March 2020 to 5th May 2021) to the ordinary day of election in 2021. Covers councillor vacancies, elected mayors, combined authority mayors, Greater London Authority positions, and various local referendums. Also extends terms of office for councillors affected by postponed elections and provides immunity from election voidance provisions for polls not held due to pandemic postponements.

This regulation was a temporary emergency response to an exceptional public health crisis that has now passed. The 'relevant period' ended on 5th May 2021, and all postponed elections were to be held on the ordinary day of election in 2021. The regulation has served its purpose and is now functionally obsolete. However, the more fundamental issue is that postponing democratic elections imposes real costs: vacancies remain unfilled longer than normal, delaying representation; accumulated postponements create backlog and uncertainty; and emergency powers to delay elections should not remain on the statute books as permanent fixtures. As Mises would argue, the market (in this case, democratic participation) works best without coercive interference. These emergency measures, however justified they may have been in April 2020 with incomplete information about COVID-19's trajectory, should not persist as part of the permanent regulatory landscape. Britain historically managed elections through wars and crises without blanket postponement legislation—the Coronavirus Act 2020 and these regulations represented a departure from that tradition of resilience.

The Armed Forces Act (Continuation) Order 2020 extends the expiration date of the Armed Forces Act 2006 by one year, from 11th May 2020 to 11th May 2021. It is a procedural continuation order that prevents primary legislation from expiring.

This Order merely prevents existing primary legislation from expiring — it imposes no new regulatory burden, no economic cost, and no restriction on trade or commerce. The Armed Forces Act 2006 governs essential military discipline and service law. Its expiration would create a legal vacuum in military governance, undermining national defence capability and the functioning of the Armed Forces. There is no deregulatory benefit to allowing military legal framework to lapse, and no alternative mechanism could achieve the same stable continuation of essential service law without primary legislation.

Emergency regulations from April 2020 that modified universal credit standard allowance timing and local housing allowance determination effective dates during the coronavirus pandemic. The changes ensured COVID-era benefit adjustments took effect from the first assessment period ending on or after 6 April 2020 rather than previous dates.

These were emergency COVID-19 measures from April 2020, now over 5 years obsolete. The pandemic emergency has passed and such temporary support mechanisms have been unwound. Retaining these regulations adds unnecessary complexity to the statute book with no current purpose, while perpetuating the bureaucratic tendency to layer emergency provisions permanently into law.

These Regulations establish procedures for determining costs payable by the Lord Chancellor to individuals who succeed in proceedings against Justices of the Peace or authorised court/tribunal staff for acts or omissions in the execution of their duties. They set out claim filing requirements, time limits, documentation requirements, and the role of costs judges in England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Public authorities are excluded from receiving cost orders.

This regulation creates a bureaucratic mechanism where the state compensates individuals for harms caused by state actors, but shields individual judicial officers from personal liability. The administrative overhead (costs judges, filing offices, hearings, multiple time limits) adds costs without addressing the fundamental issue: if judicial officers cause harm, they should bear personal financial responsibility rather than hiding behind a taxpayer-funded compensation scheme. The restriction excluding public authorities reveals the regulation's flawed logic - it acknowledges that indiscriminate state compensation creates perverse incentives. Additionally, as retained EU law with no evidence of post-Brexit democratic scrutiny, this inherited bureaucratic layer should be deleted rather than preserved.

Emergency rules enacted in April 2020 to enable temporary release of prisoners during coronavirus pandemic. Created new Rule 9A for prisons and Rule 5A for young offender institutions, allowing Secretary of State to release certain fixed-term prisoners during a 'transmission control period' for purposes of controlling coronavirus transmission or deploying resources. Included safeguards excluding Category A prisoners, sex offenders, and those with deportation status. Prisoners could be released subject to conditions and recalled at any time.

These rules were explicitly emergency COVID-19 legislation from April 2020, dependent on the 'transmission control period' defined in the now-expired Coronavirus Act 2020. They are legally inoperative but remain on the books unnecessarily. The wide discretionary powers granted to the Secretary of State (including framing prisoner descriptions by 'whatever matters the Secretary of State considers appropriate') were justifiable only under genuine emergency conditions that no longer exist. Standard temporary release mechanisms under existing Rules 9 and 5 remain available for legitimate cases. Retaining this legislation creates confusion, potential for mission creep, and leaves an inappropriate precedent of broad executive release powers embedded in permanent law.

A minor amendment to the Offender Management Act 2007 (Approved Premises) Regulations 2014, inserting 'or rule 9A' into the definition of 'licence'. Made under emergency conditions to address COVID-19, coming into force at 12.01 a.m. on 6th April 2020.

COVID-era consequential amendment that explicitly references coronavirus in its title and was rushed through under emergency conditions without proper parliamentary scrutiny. Emergency COVID provisions have been repealed across the statute book; this amendment only has meaning if rule 9A (a COVID-specific provision) remains operative. Such COVID-19 consequential amendments should be deleted as obsolete legislation inherited from the emergency period.

The A585 Windy Harbour to Skippool Highway Development Consent Order 2020 grants development consent for a major road improvement scheme in Lancashire, authorising Highways England to construct, maintain and operate a new section of the A585 trunk road and associated works. The Order contains 38 articles addressing: definitional provisions; development consent and deviation rights; transfer of benefits; street works under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991; construction and maintenance of new/ altered streets; road classification and de-trunking; speed limits; traffic regulation; temporary stopping up of streets; permanent stopping up of streets and private means of access; powers of acquisition and possession; apparatus and rights of statutory undertakers; and environmental requirements including construction environmental management plans. It incorporates extensive definitions, 11 schedules, and applies various provisions of the Highways Act 1980, Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, and Planning Act 2008.

This Order is project-specific consent for a highway improvement, not a broad regulatory burden on the economy. It does not impose general market restrictions but enables infrastructure development that enhances economic mobility and productivity. The compulsory purchase provisions include proper compensation mechanisms under the Land Compensation Act 1961. The traffic regulation and street works provisions are standard for major infrastructure and contain appropriate safeguards. The environmental management requirements are bounded by the environmental statement and do not create open-ended regulatory expansion. Deleting this Order would prevent a legitimate infrastructure project that would improve connectivity and economic activity in Lancashire, with no commensurate regulatory relief to the broader economy.

Amendment regulations that extended statutory deadlines for local authority accounts publication and audit from July/Sep 2020 to November 2020/September 2020 for the 2019-20 financial year, enacted as a COVID-19 emergency measure.

This regulation is entirely obsolete - it only modified deadlines applicable to the 2019-20 financial year, which have long since passed. The extensions were a one-time pandemic response that served their purpose. As a dead letter with no ongoing effect, it clutters the statute book. More fundamentally, the underlying rigid deadlines in the 2015 Regulations that required emergency deferral illustrate the problem: prescriptive statutory deadlines for local authority accounting create inflexibility that must be patched rather than solved.

Temporary amendment to the Social Fund Maternity and Funeral Expenses (General) Regulations 2005 that increases the funeral payment amount from £700 to £1,000 for deaths occurring on or after 8th April 2020. Enacted under COVID-19 provisions, extending to England and Wales only.

This regulation was a time-limited COVID-19 response that has become permanently embedded in the statute books without democratic scrutiny. Government-provided funeral payments distort the funeral services market by artificially inflating demand and prices, reduce individual incentives to plan and save, and create moral hazard. The COVID pandemic has passed, yet this amendment remains in force as a permanent welfare intervention rather than the temporary measure its name implies. If a £1,000 payment is genuinely desired policy, it should require primary legislation with full parliamentary debate, not secondary legislation passed in haste under emergency coronavirus powers.

The Church Representation Rules (Amendment) Resolution 2020 amends the Church Representation Rules to revise procedures for enrolment appeals, nomination appeals, and election appeals within the Church of England. It introduces detailed procedural requirements including notice timeframes (48 hours, 7 days, 14 days, 28 days), written representation entitlements, panel appointment procedures, and notification obligations for various parties. The Resolution substitutes multiple rules (57, 58, 59, 60, 61) and inserts new rules (57A, 58A, 59A, 59B, 60A, 60B, 60C, 61A, 61B, 61C) governing how church election disputes are to be handled.

This regulation governs internal ecclesiastical elections of the Church of England—a religious body's internal governance. It imposes extensive procedural requirements (detailed timeframes, written submission rights, panel appointments, notification obligations) that restrict the Church's autonomy to conduct its own affairs. The State should not be setting detailed procedural rules for how a church conducts its elections and resolves disputes. Parliamentary time spent scrutinising and the civil service resources consumed administering these procedures for what is essentially a private religious organisation represent unnecessary state involvement in ecclesiastical governance.

A 2020 Order enabling the Governor of Anguilla to postpone the general election due to coronavirus, by disapplying section 64 of the Constitution and allowing the Governor to set a new election date within 4 months of Assembly dissolution, with power to recall the dissolved Assembly in case of emergency.

This temporary, emergency legislation addresses a specific public health crisis (COVID-19) that posed genuine risks to democratic participation. It provides a narrowly tailored framework: elections must still occur within 4 months, and the Assembly can be recalled for genuine emergencies. Unlike EU-derived regulations that impose ongoing bureaucratic burdens, this Order is self-limiting (it ceases to apply after the first election) and does not restrict liberty, trade, or economic activity. Without it, the Governor would lack clear legal authority to manage elections safely during a pandemic, potentially endangering both public health and democratic legitimacy.

The Care of Cathedrals (Amendment) Rules 2020 amend the Care of Cathedrals Rules 2006 to update inventory requirements for cathedral objects of architectural, archaeological, artistic or historic interest. Key provisions include: mandatory inventory entries for objects designated by fabric advisory committees; photographic record requirements; electronic storage obligations with secure backup copies; restrictions on who may modify records; and public accessibility determinations. The Rules also correct a cross-reference in Schedule 2.

This regulation imposes prescriptive bureaucratic requirements on how cathedrals maintain heritage object inventories, including mandated electronic storage formats, backup procedures, and authorization controls. These are not commercial enterprises with misaligned incentives — cathedrals have profound intrinsic motivation to preserve irreplaceable heritage assets. The market (donors, visitors, heritage bodies) already provides strong incentive for proper stewardship. The state should not dictate the technical specifics of record-keeping to religious institutions managing their own collections. Compliance costs are disproportionate to any public benefit, and such micromanagement exemplifies the regulatory excess that burdens civil society without justification.

Emergency pandemic regulations (effective 8th April 2020, expired 31st August 2021) that temporarily modified social security benefits rules to treat prisoners on temporary release as non-prisoners for benefit eligibility purposes, applying to Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance, State Pension Credit, Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit, and housing benefit.

These regulations have already ceased to have effect on 31st August 2021 — they were explicitly time-limited emergency pandemic measures. Keeping expired legislation on the books creates unnecessary statutory clutter and suggests these temporary relaxations should become permanent, which would further entangle the state in benefit distribution decisions better handled by market forces and private charity. The pandemic context no longer applies, and there is no demonstrated ongoing harm from their expiration.

The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Coronavirus) (England) (Amendment) Order 2020 introduced emergency permitted development rights for local authorities and health service bodies during the COVID-19 pandemic. It allows expedited development on public land to prevent emergencies or mitigate their effects, subject to numerous restrictions (height limits, distance from dwellings, exclusions for SSSIs, scheduled monuments, military explosive storage areas) and conditions including a sunset date of 31st December 2020 and restoration requirements.

This regulation was a temporary COVID-19 emergency measure with a built-in sunset clause (use ceases 31st December 2020) and mandatory restoration requirements. Its own conditions acknowledge its transitory nature. While emergency development frameworks serve a legitimate purpose, this specific iteration was crafted for a specific crisis that has passed. More fundamentally, Britain should pursue permanent planning liberalisation rather than relying on temporary emergency provisions that expire when the crisis ends. The underlying principle of expedited emergency development could be re-enacted by Parliament when genuinely needed, rather than remaining permanently on the statute books as a vestigial COVID measure.