Browse regulations

A statutory instrument designating new trunk road infrastructure (slip roads and roundabouts) at the A2 Bean and Ebbsfleet junction as official trunk roads, establishing measurement standards for the works, and directing Highways England to become the highway authority for these roads from 11th June 2020.

This Order imposes no regulatory burden on citizens or businesses whatsoever — it is purely an administrative act designating road infrastructure and transferring highway authority. Britons would be worse off if deleted, as without formal trunk road designation there would be no clear authority responsible for maintaining and operating these junction improvements, potentially creating gaps in critical infrastructure management. No alternative mechanism exists to achieve this administrative designation except through such an Order.

This commencement order brings Section 8 of the Mobile Homes Act 2013 into force on 15th June 2020, implementing a 'fit and proper person' requirement for managers of mobile home sites in England. The regulation grants authorities discretion to assess whether site managers meet conduct and competence standards, with powers to refuse or revoke site licences.

The 'fit and proper person' test is an inherently vague standard that creates barriers to entry for mobile home site managers, reducing the supply of available sites. Such licensing regimes impose compliance costs, invite administrative discretion that can be inconsistently applied, and risk being captured by incumbent operators to stifle competition. Market mechanisms such as disclosure requirements, insurance, and contractual remedies between site owners and residents can discipline poor management more efficiently than government licensing. Protecting vulnerable residents does not require restricting who may operate a site.

Grants E.ON UK CHP Limited an exemption from the requirement to hold an electricity supply licence for supplies to non-domestic premises in the Port of Liverpool area, subject to conditions: no holding of a section 6(1)(d) licence, maximum supply limit of 8 megawatts, and expiry on 31st March 2024.

The exemption has already expired (31st March 2024) and is therefore obsolete. Furthermore, the bespoke nature of this exemption—granting one company a licence-free privilege in a specific geographic area—reflects precisely the kind of regulatory favoritism that distorts competition and creates barriers for other market participants. Such individualized exemptions should be replaced with either clear general exemptions for CHP providers or proper competitive licensing.

The Education (Recognised Bodies) (England) Order 2020 revokes the 2013 Order and designates bodies listed in a Schedule as 'recognised bodies' under the Office for Students framework. It establishes which higher education institutions are officially recognized, enabling student loan access and confirming institutional legitimacy.

This Order creates a government-approved list that restricts entry into higher education, enabling regulatory capture by existing institutions. The OfS designation acts as a barrier to competition, driving tuition costs higher by limiting supply of providers. Private accreditation bodies and existing fraud law can protect students from degree mills without requiring government licensing. The 2013 Order's revocation and re-enactment suggests mere list maintenance rather than substantive regulatory need.

Post-Brexit amendment regulations that adapt retained EU law (Regulations 1306/2013, 1307/2013, and related delegated regulations) for UK use by replacing EU terminology with UK equivalents ('Member States' to 'relevant authority'/'constituent nation'), correcting technical errors (decimal formatting, exchange rate calculation dates), and preserving pre-exit day provisions for ongoing schemes.

While Better Britain opposes the CAP system itself, this regulation merely performs necessary technical housekeeping to make already-retained EU law functional post-Brexit. Deleting it would create legal chaos and gaps in agricultural administration without actually repealing the underlying subsidies. The regulation adds no new bureaucratic burden—it simply fixes references and preserves existing arrangements. Removing this would harm farmers and administrators who need functional rules, while the underlying CAP direct payment system should be reformed through separate legislation rather than by creating regulatory gaps through deletion of technical amendments.

Amendment to the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 that removes the requirement for informants to be physically present at a registry office when registering births or deaths. Originally introduced as a coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency measure to allow remote registration.

Removing the physical presence requirement reduces administrative burden and cost for families registering births and deaths. No evidence this regulation causes harm or has unintended consequences - the only effect is to permit remote registration, which is a deregulation. Deleting it would restore an unnecessary physical presence requirement with no compensating benefit, harming families who cannot easily travel to registry offices.

This Order amends the VAT (Section 55A) (Specified Services and Excepted Supplies) Order 2019 to defer the commencement date from 1st October 2020 to 1st March 2021 due to coronavirus, and inserts a new paragraph 1A requiring written confirmation from recipients that supplies fall within paragraph (1)(b) before they can be treated as excepted supplies. It also updates article 8(2) references to reflect the new paragraph 1A.

This amendment merely delays implementation and adds procedural written-confirmation requirements to an existing regulatory framework. The underlying 2019 Order establishing the excepted supplies regime remains in force regardless. The written confirmation requirement in paragraph 1A adds compliance burden without adding substantive protections—recipients could verify requirements through simpler mechanisms. As the commencement date has already passed, the deferral aspect is obsolete, and the substantive policy question is whether the excepted supplies framework itself should exist, not whether this amendment should.

These Regulations amend three existing items of secondary legislation governing vegetable seed and plant material marketing: the Marketing of Vegetable Plant Material Regulations 1995, the Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) Regulations 2001, and the Seed Marketing Regulations 2011. The amendments consist almost entirely of updating definitions to reflect current EU directive references and substituting updated tables of vegetable species and common names. The regulations apply to England only and came into force on 1st July 2020.

This regulation perpetuates a retained EU approval regime that restricts which vegetable seed varieties can be legally marketed based on government-maintained lists. Such licensing systems inherently limit market freedom, reduce agricultural innovation, and impose compliance costs on seed merchants without demonstrable consumer benefit that cannot be achieved through contract law or market mechanisms. Post-Brexit, this inherited EU framework represents exactly the type of bureaucratic restriction that should be removed to restore Britain's position as a free-trading agricultural nation. The technical amendments updating species tables do not alter the fundamental regulatory architecture of market restriction that harms Britons.

These Regulations govern the form and process of canvass forms used for voter registration in Northern Ireland under section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 1983. They specify required information (name, address, nationality, NI number, opt-out from edited register), submission requirements (written form, declarations, dating), rules for those unable to submit themselves (reading declaration aloud, instructing another person), and apply communication and electronic signature provisions from the 2008 Regulations. They also revoke previous canvass form provisions from the 2008 Regulations.

This regulation imposes extensive procedural requirements on citizens completing voter registration canvass forms with minimal flexibility—written-only submission, specific declarations, requirements to read aloud to those unable to read, and physical presence requirements for assisted submission. These procedural burdens serve bureaucratic convenience rather than electoral integrity. The 2020 regulation actually tightened requirements compared to the 2008 provisions it replaced, adding constraints on digital submission and expanding mandatory information collection. As retained EU-era law governing a non-economic government function, it represents regulatory accumulation without demonstrated benefit. Simplification and modernization of electoral administration is warranted.

These regulations amend the Representation of the People Acts of 1983 and 1985, along with related Northern Ireland electoral regulations, to enable electronic submission of canvass forms and voter registration applications through the UK digital service. They introduce digital registration numbers for persons registering online, establish provisions for sending electronic notices during canvass periods, and extend digital registration provisions to absent voting and recall petition procedures in Northern Ireland.

This regulation modernises Northern Ireland's electoral administration by enabling digital submission of registration and canvass forms, reducing administrative burden and paper costs while maintaining existing paper-based alternatives. As a Northern Ireland-specific measure following Brexit, it represents the kind of regulatory independence we support. The benefits include increased participation through easier registration, reduced processing costs, and faster updates to the electoral register. Deletion would revert to a purely paper-based system, burdening both voters and administrators with no corresponding benefit.

Temporary COVID-19 provision inserted into Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (Part 55) staying all possession proceedings and enforcement proceedings by writ or warrant of possession from 25th June 2020 until 23rd August 2020, with exceptions for trespasser claims, Section III proceedings, agreed case management directions, and injunctive relief claims.

This temporary COVID-19 emergency measure automatically expired on 23rd August 2020 and is now obsolete. While enacted for legitimate emergency reasons, it exemplifies the type of ad hoc intervention that should not remain on the statute book as precedent. Possession proceedings involve fundamental property rights, and even a temporary stay with exceptions created uncertainty and delays for property owners. The pandemic context does not justify retaining this instrument indefinitely — if emergency court procedures are needed for future crises, they should be enacted with fresh parliamentary approval and appropriate sunset clauses, not preserved as dormant provisions. Keeping this rule normalizes emergency suspensions of property rights without ensuring they are truly necessary and time-limited.

This Order extends to England and Wales and Scotland, modifying the Criminal Justice Act 1991 by inserting section 3B after section 24(3A). The modification treats Scottish restitution orders under section 253A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 as equivalent to fines for recovery purposes, enabling the existing fine recovery mechanisms in the 1991 Act to be applied to Scottish restitution orders.

Deletion would create a enforcement gap — Scottish restitution orders would lack any recovery mechanism in England and Wales, requiring costly separate legal proceedings. This is a narrow technical coordination provision that imposes no regulatory burden, merely extending existing recovery infrastructure to cross-border restitution orders. Without it, victims owed restitution could face practical barriers to recovery when defendants have assets in different jurisdictions.

This Order amends the Weights and Measures Act 1985 to update the statutory definitions of 'metre' and 'kilogram' to align with the 2019 redefinition of the International System of Units (SI). The metre is now defined by reference to the fixed numerical value of the speed of light in vacuum, and the kilogram by reference to the Planck constant, both ultimately deriving from caesium frequency standards.

Britons would be worse off if deleted because weights and measures definitions are foundational to legal certainty in commerce, contract enforcement, and dispute resolution. Without standardized statutory definitions, every commercial transaction involving measurement would face ambiguity and increased transaction costs. While the definitions are technical and could theoretically be handled by contract law or industry standards, the state providing uniform definitions reduces coordination costs across the entire economy. The updated definitions based on universal constants are actually superior to the previous artifact-based definitions, providing greater precision and stability without imposing restrictions on economic activity.

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Amendment regulations that remove regulation 1(2)-(4) from the Water Industry (Specified Infrastructure Projects) (English Undertakers) Regulations 2013, which would have contained commencement and scope provisions for that instrument.

These are purely mechanical amendment regulations that remove textual provisions from a 2013 Statutory Instrument. As a standalone amendment with no substantive requirements of its own, retaining thisSI serves no purpose - once an amendment that omits text is made, its continued existence provides no regulatory value and creates confusion about which version of the 2013 Regulations is current. Such technical amendment instruments should be absorbed into consolidated text rather than remain as separate instruments on the statute book.