Browse regulations

The Keuper Underground Gas Storage Facility Order 2017 is a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) order granting development consent for an underground gas storage facility in Cheshire. It confers extensive powers on Keuper Gas Storage Limited including: street works and alterations, compulsory acquisition of land, protective works to buildings, canal works (Manchester Ship Canal), temporary use of land, drainage connections, and tree preservation. The Order contains requirements for environmental management, noise monitoring, decommissioning, and includes protective provisions for landowners, statutory undertakers, and the Canal & River Trust. It operates subject to the Planning Act 2008 framework and includes standard provisions for arbitration, compensation, and consent requirements from various authorities.

Underground gas storage infrastructure serves critical energy security and market functions — Britain's gas storage capacity is notably limited compared to European peers, and this facility would enhance competition and supply reliability in the energy market. While the Order grants significant compulsory acquisition powers, these are subject to extensive protective provisions, compensation requirements, and environmental safeguards (CEMP, noise monitoring schemes, ecological surveys). The regulatory requirements (Schedule 2) and protective provisions (Schedule 9) represent legitimate balancing of private development rights against affected third parties, not bureaucratic burden. Deletion would eliminate a project conferring material benefits to Britain's energy resilience and economy, with no alternative mechanism to achieve the same outcome.

Amends the Mesothelioma Lump Sum Payments (Conditions and Amounts) Regulations 2008 to update payment amounts for victims of diffuse mesothelioma and their dependants. Payments vary by age (at diagnosis for sufferers, at death for dependants). Applies to those first diagnosed or claiming on or after 1 April 2017.

This regulation does not fall within Better Britain's remit. It is a domestic social welfare scheme implementing the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008, providing lump sum compensation to victims of an industrial disease (asbestos-related mesothelioma) and their families. It imposes no regulatory burden on business, does not restrict trade, planning, or healthcare provision, and is not a retained EU law. Deleting it would leave mesothelioma victims and their dependants without statutorily prescribed compensation, causing direct financial harm to some of Britain's most vulnerable citizens at the end of life.

This Order amends the Sovereign Grant Act 2011 by increasing the percentage used to calculate the Sovereign Grant (the annual payment to the monarch to fund official duties) from 15% to 25% in Step 1 of section 6(1). It came into force the day after it was made in 2017.

This regulation increases public expenditure on the monarchy with no market-based justification. From a classical liberal perspective, state funding of a hereditary institution represents an unearned benefit extracted from taxpayers. The increase from 15% to 25% compounds the burden without corresponding benefit - the monarchy's official functions could be funded through alternative arrangements or voluntary support. Removing this regulation would revert to the lower 15% figure, reducing the fiscal burden on Britons and adhering to the principle that individuals should not be compelled to fund hereditary privilege.

Amends the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Order 2016 to extend certain provisions to the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey; updates definitions including Electronic Visa Waiver and entry clearance; introduces Article 5A setting Isle of Man approval letter fees (£2,000/£550); and modifies premium services table entries including adding web-chat facility-based pricing and contractor-provided advice rates.

This instrument merely adjusts fee structures within an existing immigration framework already enacted by Parliament. It does not itself impose new immigration restrictions or create significant new regulatory burdens — it coordinates fee arrangements across UK and Crown dependencies. The fees in question cover cost-recovery for administrative services (entry clearance processing, approval letters, premium services) rather than prohibitions on activity. Deleting this Order would create practical gaps in fee collection mechanisms without reducing any underlying immigration controls, which are beyond the scope of this instrument to address.

Technical amendment instrument correcting formatting, capitalization, punctuation, and cross-references in the Postal Administration (Scotland) Rules 2016, including fixing capitalisation inconsistencies (e.g., 'Set' to 'set'), removing erroneous 'to' particles, correcting reference terminology, and standardising heading capitalisation.

This is a technical correction instrument that merely fixes formatting errors, inconsistent capitalisation, and inaccurate cross-references in the 2016 Rules. Deleting it would leave the underlying Postal Administration (Scotland) Rules 2016 in force with uncorrected errors that could cause confusion in legal proceedings. The amendments impose no new regulatory burden, expand no regulatory scope, and create no compliance costs—they simply make the existing rules clearer and internally consistent. Without these corrections, practitioners and courts would continue using the incorrectly formatted version.

These Regulations amend the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers' Compensation) (Payment of Claims) Regulations 1988 to increase payment amounts for workers suffering from pneumoconiosis, mesothelioma, and related occupational diseases. The amendments update: the payment for death from diffuse mesothelioma (£3,051→£3,082), payments for pneumoconiosis with tuberculosis (£6,312→£6,375), minimum dependant payments, and substitute new compensation tables in the Schedule based on age and percentage assessment.

This scheme provides no-fault compensation to workers suffering from occupational diseases (pneumoconiosis, mesothelioma, asbestosis) with long latency periods—often 20-40 years between exposure and onset. Without this scheme, these workers would face lengthy litigation against defunct employers or uninsured firms. The compensation is funded by a levy on industry, not general taxation. Deletion would harm the most vulnerable—historically industrial workers who contracted diseases before modern health and safety standards existed—and leave them with no recourse. While government-mandated schemes are imperfect, private markets could not plausibly have provided such coverage for long-latency industrial diseases.

These Regulations expand the definition of 'investment bank' in the Banking Act 2009 to include AIF and UCITS managers and depositaries, and amend the Investment Bank Special Administration Regulations 2011 to add client money definitions, a new Objective 1 (working with FSCS), Objective 1 (transfer of client assets), and restrictions on partial property transfers covering set-off/netting arrangements, security interests, capital market arrangements, and financial markets.

Without these regulations, clients of investment banks undergoing special administration would face greater uncertainty about recovering their assets. The FSCS coordination requirement and client asset transfer rules provide essential protections that prevent a chaotic race to seize assets during insolvency. The partial property transfer restrictions, while limiting administrator flexibility, protect clients from losing the benefit of set-off arrangements, security interests, and market contracts they legitimately hold. Deleting these rules would leave retail and institutional clients significantly worse protected in the event of an investment bank failure, with no clear mechanism to ensure they could access compensation or recover assets in an orderly manner.

Transitional regulations implementing Scotland Act 2016 changes, modifying Scotland Act 1998 to manage transfer of certain social security functions (disability benefits, industrial injuries, carer's benefits, maternity/funeral/heating expenses) from UK Ministers to Scottish Ministers. Includes transitional periods ending March 2020 and March 2022, modifies sections 23 and 53 of Scotland Act 1998, and applies Transfer of Property Order provisions to functions not fully transferring.

These are domestic UK regulations implementing Scottish devolution under the Scotland Act 2016, not retained EU law. They represent orderly devolution of powers to Scotland and include sunset provisions. While social security schemes are generally problematic from a free-market perspective, these regulations merely facilitate administrative transfers already mandated by primary legislation and contain built-in expiration dates. Deletion would create legal uncertainty and administrative chaos without addressing the underlying policy question of whether the transferred functions themselves should exist.

A time-limited regulation (in force 10th April 2017 to 31st March 2018) that gives legal effect to paragraph 1.6 and paragraph 6.2 of the Annex in the NHS Commissioning Board mandate published by the Secretary of State on 20th March 2017. The regulation automatically ceased to have effect at its expiry date and served as an incorporation by reference mechanism for NHS mandate requirements.

The regulation has been automatically expired since 31st March 2018 — it was designed as a self-terminating instrument with no provision for extension. It functioned merely as an incorporation mechanism for mandate requirements rather than creating independent regulatory obligations. Since it no longer has any legal effect and cannot be revived without fresh legislation, retaining it on the statute books serves no purpose. Furthermore, as a purely procedural link to a political mandate document, it added no independent regulatory burden but also no independent benefit — making its continued presence purposeless.

This Order applies sections 731, 733 and 734 of the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 to payments made under the Scottish Infected Blood Support Scheme. It provides tax exemptions for periodical payments received by Scheme beneficiaries who were infected with Hepatitis C, HIV, or both as a result of NHS treatment in Scotland, effective 13th April 2017.

This Order creates a targeted tax exemption for a specific group of individuals based on the cause of their medical condition. Such carve-outs distort neutral application of tax law and establish a precedent for special tax treatment based on how injury was acquired. The tax code should apply uniformly; compensation for personal injury should receive no different treatment than other income streams. This regulation adds complexity to the tax system and creates preferential treatment that cannot be justified on pure economic grounds, regardless of the legitimate sympathies surrounding the infected blood tragedy.

These Regulations establish a framework for appeals to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) against Authority decisions regarding the revision (or non-revision) of designated codes (Wholesale-Retail Code) in the water industry. They set out procedural rules for appealing Ofwat decisions, including permission requirements, intervener procedures, evidence powers, determination criteria, and cost orders. The regulations apply to water supply licensees, sewerage licensees, and undertakers who wish to challenge regulatory decisions.

This regulation adds procedural complexity without clear justification for its existence over general administrative law principles. While the concept of appeals against regulatory decisions is legitimate, the specific requirements—30 working day timelines, detailed notice provisions, cost orders, evidence rules—create regulatory burden without demonstrated benefit. Affected parties retain access to judicial review under general law, which can address claims of unlawful decision-making without this layer of specialized (but somewhat arbitrary) procedural requirements. The water industry's technical nature does not justify these particular procedural specifications over standard administrative appeal mechanisms.

This Order modifies standard conditions for water supply and sewerage licences under the Water Industry Act 1991. It specifies 20% thresholds for section 17J(6)(b) objections and establishes a complex volume-based market share weighting formula for calculating objections from licence holders. It also revokes the 2005 Order and contains definitions for 'relevant period', 'relevant month', and 'relevant information'.

This regulation perpetuates a bureaucratic market share calculation regime that favours incumbent water companies and raises barriers to new entrants. The volume-weighted formula based on total water supplied by all licensees creates a mathematical bias toward large established players, as new entrants start with negligible market share and face a weighted objection system designed by incumbents. The 20% thresholds combined with the calculation methodology provide incumbents with tools to block modifications that might benefit consumers or increase competition. In an industry already dominated by regional monopolies, this regulatory complexity serves to entrench market positions rather than promote the competitive markets that would lower prices and improve service for British water customers.

Commencement order bringing Section 67 (sexual communication with a child) of the Serious Crime Act 2015 into force on 3rd April 2017. Section 67 creates a criminal offense for adults who communicate sexually with children under 16.

Britons would be worse off if this was deleted because Section 67 creates a specific criminal offense for sexual communication with children that did not previously exist in this form. Without this commencement order, the statutory offense would not be operational, leaving a gap in child protection law. While other offenses (e.g., admin attempts, assault) might cover some conduct, they cannot replicate the specific targeting behavior of predatory grooming via communication. This is a criminal justice measure protecting children, not an economic regulatory burden, so falls outside the scope of regulations appropriate for deletion under this review framework.

This Order amends the Firearms Act 1968 to create a new offence in Scotland for pawnbrokers taking air weapons in pawn, prescribe its punishment (summary: 3 months/level 3 fine), and allow courts in England and Wales to cancel Scottish air weapon certificates and order forfeiture of firearms/ammunition when persons are convicted under the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015.

While regulation of pawnbrokers imposes costs, this Order addresses a genuine public safety nexus between firearms regulation and pawnshops that could otherwise be exploited by criminals. The cross-border coordination provisions (allowing English/Welsh courts to cancel Scottish certificates) prevent regulatory arbitrage where Scottish certificate holders could evade consequences in one jurisdiction. The scope is narrow and Scotland-specific, with limited extraterritorial reach. Without these provisions, convicted individuals could retain air weapon certificates or use pawnshops as a conduit for firearms-related activity.

These Regulations amend the Corporation Tax (Treatment of Unrelieved Surplus Advance Corporation Tax) Regulations 1999, updating terminology from 'franked investment income' to 'qualifying investment income' and introducing new definitions for 'exempt ABGH distribution' to reflect changes in distribution exemption rules under Part 9A of CTA 2009. The Regulations apply to distributions made in accounting periods commencing on or after 6th April 2016 and make corresponding technical amendments to surplus calculation mechanics, particularly for life assurance businesses.

Deletion would revert to pre-2017 terminology and definitions that are inconsistent with current distribution exemption rules, creating confusion and potential double taxation issues for companies with surplus advance corporation tax. The amendment merely updates the existing framework to reflect legislative changes already enacted in CTA 2009 and CTA 2010, without expanding regulatory burden.