Browse regulations

The Sanctions (EU Exit) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 amend multiple UK sanctions regulations (Iran, Venezuela, Burma, Guinea-Bissau, Belarus, Zimbabwe, Chemical Weapons, Syria, Russia, Burundi, Guinea, Cyber, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nicaragua) by inserting a standard 'Exception for authorised conduct in a relevant country' provision. This creates an exception to asset-freeze and trade prohibitions where conduct in Channel Islands, Isle of Man, or British overseas territories is authorised under local law for the purpose of disapplying corresponding local prohibitions.

Britons would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it is a deregulatory measure that reduces conflicts between UK sanctions and those of Crown Dependencies and British overseas territories. Without this exception, UK sanctions would create legal uncertainty for businesses operating across these jurisdictions, potentially driving economic activity away from UK-connected territories. The exception enables coordination rather than creating new prohibitions—it permits conduct that local authorities in these territories have already authorised, reducing regulatory conflicts without undermining the broader sanctions regime's objectives.

Temporary amendment to the Wills Act 1837 permitting wills to be witnessed via videoconference or visual transmission for wills made between 31 January 2020 and 31 January 2022, in response to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on physical presence.

This temporary measure has already expired by its own terms (the applicable period ended 31 January 2022). The regulation served a genuine emergency purpose during COVID-19 lockdowns but is now obsolete. No ongoing regulatory burden remains. The savings clause protecting prior grants of probate ensures legal certainty for anything already done under this Order.

Temporary COVID-19 measure that extended Crown Court custody time limits from 112 to 168 days (initial) and 182 to 238 days (extended) to address pandemic-related court delays. Explicitly ceased to have effect on 28th June 2021.

Regulation is already defunct (ceased 28th June 2021) and was merely a temporary emergency patch that papered over chronic court inefficiencies rather than fixing them. Rather than incentivising efficient case processing, extended custody limits reward systemic delays. The regulation represents the worst type of intervention: expanding state power over individual liberty without addressing underlying problems. Such emergency measures should not remain on the statute book as precedent for future expansions of detention without trial.

Variable speed limit regulations for M1 Motorway junctions 13-16, effective September 2020. Drivers cannot exceed speeds shown on electronic speed limit signs (diagram 670). Speed indicated is the level shown when passing or 10 seconds prior if higher. Limits cease when driver passes a different speed sign or national speed limit sign, or when traffic officer places a sign or an order under s.14 Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 is in force.

Variable speed limits represent state control of individual speed decisions rather than allowing drivers to assess conditions and make their own risk calculations. Evidence shows such schemes often create dangerous speed differentials and artificial congestion. These regulations suppress individual liberty on the roads, add regulatory complexity, and treat motorists as incapable of determining appropriate speeds for conditions. The administrative apparatus required to implement and enforce variable speed limits imposes costs without clear evidence of net safety benefit.

The Feed-in Tariffs (Amendment) (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Order 2020 amends the Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012 to extend deadlines and validity periods for preliminary accreditation and pre-registration applications affected by COVID-19. It substitutes fixed dates (30th September 2020) with flexible time periods (24-42 months depending on technology type) measured from when the Authority received the application, for solar PV, wind, anaerobic digestion, and hydro installations.

This amendment provides targeted COVID-19 relief to existing feed-in tariff participants by extending deadlines that would otherwise expire due to pandemic-related delays. Without this change, legitimate renewable energy projects that received preliminary accreditation or pre-registration would lose their status through no fault of their own. While the feed-in tariff scheme itself represents government intervention, this specific amendment merely adjusts administrative timelines to prevent harm to existing participants affected by extraordinary circumstances. Deleting it would cause direct financial harm to renewable energy projects that legitimately entered the scheme and faced COVID disruptions.

These Regulations amend the Climate Change Agreements (Administration) Regulations 2012 and Climate Change Agreements (Eligible Facilities) Regulations 2012. They introduce target period 5 (1st January 2021 to 31st December 2022), increase the buy-out fee from £14 to £18 per tCO2 equivalent for this period, add provisions allowing the administrator to vary agreements, and extend the Eligible Facilities Regulations expiry from 2023 to 2025.

Climate Change Agreements represent government picking winners through sector-specific deals, distorting the Climate Change Levy and creating administrative complexity. These amendments extend and strengthen this interventionist regime rather thanliberalizing it. The £18 buy-out fee and increased penalties simply raise the cost of non-compliance without addressing the fundamental flaw: using tax-based incentives to direct industrial behavior rather than allowing market signals to drive emissions reductions. The new power for administrators to vary agreements retroactively adds further regulatory uncertainty.

These Regulations amend the Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel) (England) Regulations 2020 to: (1) expand definitions of 'exempt/non-exempt country or territory' to include parts of countries; (2) exclude specific Greek islands (Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Crete, Mykonos, Santorini, Zakynthos) from Greece's exempt status; (3) require passengers to provide detailed information about which parts of countries they've traveled from; (4) add sporting events to Schedule 3 (specified competitions); and (5) grandfather arrangements for arrivals between July-September 2020.

This COVID-era travel restriction regulation, now obsolete, exemplifies the regulatory accumulation that suppresses Britain's travel sector competitiveness. The complex geographic carve-outs (specific Greek islands), expanded passenger information requirements, and granular part-of-country distinctions impose ongoing compliance costs on travelers and the travel industry without corresponding benefit now that the pandemic emergency has passed. As a retained EU-era regulatory burden, it represents precisely the type of legislation requiring democratic review and deletion to restore Britain's position as a free-trading, dynamically competitive nation.

This Amendment Order (No. 2) of 2020 amends the 2014 Order governing Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions regarding arrangements, reconstructions and administration. It removes two specific paragraphs: paragraph 1J from Part 1A of Schedule 1 and paragraph 6 from Schedule 2A. The Order came into force on 10th September 2020.

This Order removes regulatory text from the 2014 Order, representing a deregulatory step consistent with reducing burden on co-operative societies, community benefit societies and credit unions. Without access to the specific content of the deleted paragraphs, the amendment itself is removing provisions rather than adding them. However, the original 2014 Order's complex administration procedures for these member-owned entities may have imposed compliance costs that were disproportionate to benefits, particularly given that such societies operate on a member-owned, not-for-profit basis with fundamentally different governance structures than commercial corporations. The removal of two specific paragraphs through secondary legislation suggests these were technical provisions found to be unnecessary or burdensome upon review.

Post-Brexit technical amendment to the Cleaner Road Transport Vehicles Regulations 2011, substituting 'EEA State' references with 'United Kingdom or Gibraltar', adding IP completion day as the applicable date reference, and inserting a fixed EUR/GBP exchange rate (GBP1=EUR1.11003) for operational lifetime cost calculations.

This EU Exit SI merely performs mechanical cleanup of existing EU-derived regulation without independent regulatory merit. The fixed exchange rate (EUR1.11003) is arbitrary and will become increasingly stale, distorting cost calculations over time. More fundamentally, the underlying 2011 Regulations implementing EU Directive 2009/33/EC imposed procurement preferences for 'clean vehicles' that distort competition and add costs to public procurement beyond what market signals would produce. This amendment preserves and perpetuates that framework. The proper course is to repeal the underlying 2011 Regulations entirely, not retain them with Brexit-era tweaks.

Amends the Education (Information About Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013 by removing the definition of 'unauthorised absence' and replacing absence-focused tracking with attendance and non-attendance recording terminology. Updates Schedule 1 reporting requirements to reflect the 2006 Regulations' attendance register categories.

While this regulation involves data collection, it imposes minimal administrative burden and serves legitimate purposes: child welfare protection, identification of at-risk students, and enabling local authorities to fulfill statutory duties toward children. The shift from 'unauthorised absence' to 'attendance and non-attendance' tracking is largely semantic rather than substantive deregulation. Deleting this would remove a standardized framework for tracking educational attendance that, despite its bureaucratic nature, helps protect vulnerable children and is unlikely to significantly impact economic freedom or market dynamics.

These Regulations amend the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 Order 2009 and the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018 to replace the Tier 4 student visa route with new Appendix ST (Student) and Appendix CS (Child Student) routes, introduce new fees (£348 entry clearance, £475 leave to remain), establish Student Sponsor status, and add fee waiver powers for exceptional circumstances and court decisions. They also amend the Passport (Fees) Regulations 2018 to add a general refund power.

These regulations perpetuate the problematic Points-based system architecture rather than liberalizing it. While technically updating legislation post-Brexit, they merely rename Tier 4 to 'Student route' without reducing regulatory burden. The new fee waiver powers (13B, 13C, 13D) grant excessive discretionary authority to the Secretary of State. The sponsorship licence regime continues to restrict entry of foreign students, and the fees themselves (£348-£475) act as barriers that reduce mobility and talent acquisition. The passport fee refund provision adds bureaucratic discretion without justification. A genuinely liberalized approach would eliminate sponsor licensing requirements and reduce fees substantially to compete with rival jurisdictions for international students.

Post-Brexit customs regulations establishing a bulk Customs declaration process for low-value postal packets, setting up authorisation requirements for authorised declarants, and amending import duty payment deferment arrangements including AEO-based deferrals, guarantee requirements, and associated definitions. Introduces simplified procedures for goods receiving full import duty relief under the UK Reliefs document.

These regulations facilitate trade by reducing administrative burden through simplified bulk declaration procedures for low-value postal imports and providing import duty payment deferment mechanisms that improve business cash flow. Deletion would remove these efficiency benefits while import duties themselves would remain in force under primary legislation, leaving Britons worse off through increased compliance costs and reduced competitiveness with other jurisdictions that offer similar customs simplifications.

This Order abolishes the existing electoral wards of the London Borough of Islington and replaces them with 17 new wards, each represented by 3 councillors. The changes take effect for election proceedings from October 2021 and fully from the 2022 ordinary election day. Boundaries are defined by reference to a map held by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England.

Electoral boundary reorganisations are essential administrative functions necessary for fair democratic representation and effective local governance. Unlike EU-derived regulatory instruments that impose compliance burdens or restrict economic activity, this Order simply defines electoral geography for a London borough. Deleting it would create electoral confusion and revert to boundaries that were presumably found inadequate. While the specific configuration (17 wards of 3 councillors each) could be debated on representational fairness grounds, such boundary adjustments are legitimate functions of the Boundary Commission and not the type of regulatory burden this review targets.

The Environmental Protection (Plastic Straws, Cotton Buds and Stirrers) (England) Regulations 2020 prohibit the supply of single-use plastic straws, plastic-stemmed cotton buds, and plastic drink stirrers to end users, with exemptions for medical/healthcare purposes, pharmacies (with restrictions), catering establishments (on-request only), care homes, schools, and prisons. The regulation creates criminal offences with fines for non-compliance, establishes civil sanctions regime including fixed monetary penalties and compliance notices, grants enforcement powers to local authorities including powers of entry and sample seizure, and requires periodic review of enforcement provisions.

This regulation restricts free commerce through criminal penalties for supplying certain products to end users. While environmental objectives may be legitimate, prohibition is a highly restrictive intervention when alternatives like pollution taxes or voluntary schemes could achieve similar reductions. The compliance burden falls disproportionately on businesses, particularly smaller retailers and catering establishments who must implement display restrictions and on-request-only policies. The extensive enforcement apparatus (local authority powers, civil sanctions, criminal offences) imposes regulatory costs that could exceed the environmental benefits, especially given the trivial weight of these items in overall plastic pollution. A post-Brexit Britain should not retain EU-derived prohibitions without thorough impact assessment and consideration of less onerous alternatives.

This Order establishes a mandatory levy on employers in the engineering construction industry to fund the Engineering Construction Industry Training Board. It specifies three levy periods (2020-2022), with rates of 1.2% on site employee emoluments and 0.20%-0.33% on off-site employee emoluments, subject to exemption thresholds of £275,000 and £1,000,000 respectively. The Order establishes assessment procedures, appeals processes, and payment terms.

This regulation imposes a compulsory industry levy that distorts labor market signals and creates regulatory capture through a government-mandated training monopoly. The engineering construction industry and its workers would be better served by voluntary contractual arrangements for training, which would eliminate the compliance burden on smaller employers and allow market forces to allocate training resources efficiently. The exemption thresholds create perverse incentives near the cut-off points, and the complex calculation methodology imposes administrative costs without commensurate benefit.