Browse regulations

This order detrunks a section of the A30 trunk road in Penzance, changing its classification from trunk road to either principal road or classified road as specified in the Schedule, effective January 25, 1990.

This is a technical reclassification of road status that affects local maintenance responsibilities and funding. Deleting it would create confusion about road ownership, maintenance obligations, and funding allocations for this specific highway section.

Prescribes specific non-domestic rates (business rates) in pence per pound for each Scottish local authority for the 1990-91 financial year, implementing the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987.

Obsolete - applies only to a single past tax year (1990-91) and has no current legal effect. Even if technically still on the books, it's a dead letter. Retaining such time-expired provisions creates statutory clutter and violates the principle that laws should be current and purposeful.

This Order imposes statutory limits on rent increases for Scottish housing associations, capping the amount rents can rise during phased increases to reach registered rent levels through formulas based on fixed amounts (£104), percentages (25% of previous rent), or phased increments (50% of the difference between current and registered rent).

Rent controls distort housing markets by suppressing price signals, reducing housing associations' revenue to maintain and expand stock, creating shortages, and misallocating housing resources. The goal of tenant affordability is counterproductively achieved by constraining supply rather than increasing it through deregulation, and can be better addressed through targeted housing benefits or construction incentives that don't penalize providers.

This regulation imposes statutory limits on rent increases for regulated tenancies in Scotland, capping annual rent rises to the greater of £104, one-quarter of the previous rent, or half the difference between the previous rent and a registered fair rent, preventing landlords from charging market rates.

Rent control suppresses price signals that coordinate housing supply with demand, reducing incentives to build new rental units, maintain existing properties, and allocate housing to those valuing it most highly. The policy creates artificial shortages, degrades housing quality, and ultimately harms tenants by constraining supply—a classic example of intervention producing precisely the opposite of its intended goal.

This 1989 Order provides for the winding up of the Merseyside Residuary Body (created after the 1985 abolition of Merseyside County Council), transferring its remaining land, assets, liabilities, and functions to Liverpool City Council, Wirral Council, and other Merseyside district councils on the transfer date of 31 January 1990. It details apportionment formulas based on population, treatment of capital and revenue receipts, transfer of employment liabilities, substitution in legal proceedings, and dispute resolution mechanisms.

This is a spent administrative order whose winding-up date was 35 years ago (1990). All transfers of assets, liabilities, and functions have been completed. Retention serves no current purpose, contributes to regulatory clutter, and creates legal uncertainty with zero benefit. No Briton would be worse off by deleting this historical artifact; its removal would streamline the statute book and reduce confusion without affecting any present rights or obligations.

This 1989 Order sets the business rateable values specifically for British Gas plc's gas pipeline infrastructure and related properties, establishing complex formulas with fixed monetary amounts (£504.3m for England, £31.7m for Wales) that adjust annually based on pipeline length and inflation indices.

Obsolete dead letter: targets 'British Gas plc' as it existed in 1989, but the British gas industry has been fully restructured, privatized, and deregulated since. The specific company and industry structure no longer exist; keeping it clutters statute book with irrelevant historical artifact that would create legal confusion if ever applied to successor companies.

This 1989 statutory instrument sets the non-domestic rateable value (business tax assessment) for canal properties owned/occupied by the British Waterways Board. It establishes a fixed base value (£295,000 for England, £16,000 for Wales for 1990-91) and provides an inflation adjustment formula based on changes in waterway lengths for subsequent years.

This is a narrow technical tax administration regulation that determines how a specific public body's property is valued for rates. Deleting it would create legal uncertainty about the Board's tax liability but would not meaningfully improve economic freedom or competitiveness. It imposes no constraints on private enterprise, distorts no market incentives, and creates no barriers to entry. The regulation serves a legitimate government function in ensuring predictable revenue collection from state-owned assets.

This regulation establishes a special valuation method for dock and harbour undertakings, setting rateable values at 9% of income with inflation adjustments and various exclusions for small operators and in-house operations.

This creates a special regulatory carve-out for docks and harbours that distorts the property tax system, giving these businesses artificial advantages over other commercial property owners while adding complex administrative overhead for rate assessment.

This order sets special rateable values for electricity generating plants, applying different valuation rates based on energy source (wind vs other) and exempting them from standard commercial property valuation rules.

Creates artificial price distortions in energy sector by applying different valuation rates to different energy sources, potentially favoring wind power over other generation methods and interfering with market-based property valuations.

Sets rateable values for electricity supply industry hereditaments based on capacity, transmission lines, and transformer capacity with formulaic adjustments over time

Administrative pricing mechanism that distorts market signals, creates regulatory complexity, and imposes compliance costs without clear economic justification - electricity assets should be valued through market mechanisms rather than government formulas

Transitional relief mechanism for non-domestic business rates, adjusting payments based on property value and inflation to prevent sharp increases in 1990-1991

Creates artificial distortions in business rates by forcing gradual transitions rather than allowing market-based adjustments, imposing administrative complexity and cost on businesses without clear economic justification

This Order establishes detailed formulas and specific rateable values for taxing railway properties in England and Wales. It sets out complex calculations tied to passenger journey and freight metrics, with special provisions for Docklands Light Railway, British Railways Board, London Underground, and Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive. The regulation includes multiple formulas, thresholds, and recalculation factors that determine annual business rates liability for railway hereditaments.

This over-engineered tax regime distorts economic incentives by directly linking rateable values to operational metrics (passenger journeys, freight). The complexity imposes unnecessary compliance costs while achieving no necessary regulatory objective that couldn't be handled through simpler, neutral general rating rules. Its metric-based approach creates perverse fiscal incentives and represents the type of bureaucratic detail that post-Brexit Britain should eliminate to restore competitive neutrality and reduce red tape.

A 1989 statutory instrument setting specific rateable values (property tax assessments) for telecommunications infrastructure owned by British Telecom and Mercury Communications. It establishes fixed pound amounts for 1990 and formulas based on network metrics (cable length, distribution points) for subsequent years, overriding normal valuation methods for these hereditaments.

This is an obsolete, company-specific tax assessment order from 1989 that artificially fixed valuations for two telecom firms, distorting the tax base. It represents the type of micro-management and industrial policy that picks winners and subverts neutral tax principles. The formulas are arbitrary and the entire instrument has been superseded by subsequent legislation and market changes. Retaining such historical baggage adds complexity to the statute book without serving any legitimate contemporary purpose.

The Water Undertakers (Rateable Values) Order 1989 prescribes formulas for calculating rateable values of water undertakers' properties for non-domestic rates in England and Wales, using technical hereditament-based calculations.

It creates unnecessary bureaucracy by imposing artificial valuation formulas that distort market-determined property values, treats a specific industry differently, and increases compliance costs without a free-market justification.

This regulation creates the Unrelated Live Transplant Regulatory Authority to approve live organ transplants between genetically unrelated persons. It lifts a statutory prohibition only after the Authority verifies: no payment was made, the donor has clinical responsibility with a registered medical practitioner, and extensive consent/ethics conditions are met. The Authority consists of 8-12 members appointed by the Secretary of State, with medical and lay representation, and operates under self-determined procedures.

This regulation codifies a centrally planned, bureaucratic bottleneck that suppresses organ supply. The requirement for Authority approval creates delays and uncertainty, deterring unrelated donors. The absolute prohibition on payment—even when voluntarily offered by recipients—artificially constrains supply against basic economic logic. The consent safeguards could be administered through existing NHS ethics committees without creating a new statutory authority. By treating unrelated donors as suspicious transactions requiring state permission rather than voluntary acts of altruism, this regulation perpetuates the fatal organ shortage that kills thousands annually—a direct cost outweighing any marginal ethical oversight benefits.