Browse regulations

This Order renames the Counter Fraud and Security Management Service to the NHS Counter Fraud Authority and updates cross-references in 9 other statutory instruments, including the Pensions Act 2004, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Order 2010, NHS Performers Lists Regulations 2013, Public Interest Disclosure Order 2014, and Proceeds of Crime Act Order 2015. It establishes the NHS Counter Fraud Authority as a special health authority under section 28 of the National Health Service Act 2006 to carry out counter fraud functions.

This Order imposes no regulatory burden—it merely effects an administrative machinery change renaming one health authority to another and updates cross-references in other legislation. Deletion would create legal uncertainty and broken references across nine separate statutory instruments without any deregulatory benefit. The counter-fraud function itself (investigating fraud against the NHS) remains unchanged; only the institutional vehicle is updated. No new restrictions on individuals or businesses are created, no market distortions are introduced, and no gold-plating is involved—merely house-keeping to reflect the reorganization of NHS counter-fraud responsibilities.

Order of Council approving the General Dental Council's Continuing Professional Development rules for dentists and dental care professionals, effective 1 January 2018. Establishes mandatory CPD requirements including minimum hours, types of activities that qualify, and record-keeping obligations for dental professionals to maintain registration.

Mandating CPD through a regulatory body creates compliance costs that reduce supply of dental services and raise prices for patients. Professional competence is already incentivised through malpractice liability, patient outcomes, and reputation in the market. The GDC's quasi-monopoly status as regulator creates regulatory capture risk, and such requirements often exceed what is genuinely necessary for patient safety. Patients can assess practitioner quality through existing mechanisms without government-imposed CPD mandates.

A correction Order that amends clerical and technical errors in the Glyn Rhonwy Pumped Storage Generating Station Order 2017, which granted development consent for a pumped storage electricity generation scheme in Wales. The Order contains a schedule with a table specifying what corrections are made where (column 1), how (column 2), and what text is substituted/inserted/omitted (column 3).

This is a purely administrative correction instrument that fixes errors in a pre-existing development consent Order. It creates no new regulatory burden, imposes no additional restrictions, and is housekeeping in nature. Britons would be worse off if errors in infrastructure consents remained uncorrected, as this could create legal uncertainty, judicial reviews, or construction disputes for a legitimate energy project. Deleting a correction Order would not delete the errors it fixes.

These regulations appoint 7th October 2017 as the day on which section 166 of the Finance Act 2016 comes into force. Section 166 amends the Taxes Management Act 1970 to create new criminal offences relating to offshore income, assets and activities. The regulations apply to the tax year commencing 6th April 2017 and subsequent tax years.

This regulation creates criminal offences for offshore tax activities that are vague and overbroad, punishing not just deliberate evasion but potentially legitimate tax planning and structuring. Such regulations increase compliance costs, deter legitimate financial activity, and expand state surveillance of citizens' financial affairs without proportionate benefit. The offshore income offences framework lacks the precision required for criminal law, risking criminalisation of conduct that causes no actual harm.

This Order amends the Crime and Courts Act 2013 (Commencement No. 15, Transitional and Savings Provisions) Order 2016 by extending the period during which certain provisions of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 remain in force, and extending transitional and savings provisions, from 13th October 2017 to 30th June 2018. It is a purely administrative date-extending amendment.

This is a procedural date-extension amendment with no regulatory burden. Deleting it would revert to the original October 2017 dates, potentially creating legal gaps or disrupting ongoing transitional arrangements. The amendment imposes no new obligations, restrictions, or costs — it merely provides continuity for existing arrangements. There is no seen or unseen cost to keeping this order, whereas reverting could create legal uncertainty.

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These Regulations establish procedures for prospective adopters (P) to search and inspect the Adoption and Children Act Register. They define eligibility conditions, the information that must be made available (child's demographics, health, religious persuasion, sibling details, photographs, etc.), and impose data security requirements on P including obligations to prevent unauthorized disclosure and report theft or loss of information. The Regulations supersede the 2014 Pilot Regulations.

While these regulations impose administrative burdens and compliance requirements, deleting them would harm vulnerable children awaiting adoption placement. The information access framework, despite its bureaucratic structure, serves a genuine public interest that private mechanisms cannot adequately protect: ensuring vulnerable children find suitable permanent homes while maintaining appropriate privacy safeguards. The data security requirements, though creating compliance costs, prevent exploitation of sensitive child information. Without this framework, prospective adopters would lack structured access to adoption information, prolonging wait times for children and reducing successful matching. The harm from deletion falls disproportionately on children in care, a group with limited market power to protect their interests.

Transfer of Functions Order 2017 reorganises government administration by transferring functions, property, rights and liabilities from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to the newly named Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It provides for continuity of legal proceedings, documents, contracts and enactments by treating references to the old role as references to the new role.

This is machinery-of-government administrative law, not regulatory burden. Deletion would create legal uncertainty around which minister holds transferred functions, leave legal proceedings in limbo, and prevent proper transfer of property and liabilities. Government reorganisation requires such framework to function; Britons would be worse off without clear legal authority for departmental restructuring.

This Order appoints named individuals as Her Majesty's Inspectors of Education, Children's Services and Skills, effective 12th October 2017. It is a routine appointment instrument bringing specific persons into post as inspectors.

This is a purely administrative appointment order that merely designates named individuals to existing statutory posts. It creates no regulatory burden, imposes no new requirements on citizens or businesses, and establishes no inspection powers—those exist independently through primary legislation. Deleting it would create constitutional and operational chaos by removing the lawful basis for these inspectors to serve, while leaving the substantive inspection framework entirely intact. The compliance costs of inspections flow from the underlying inspection framework, not from this appointment mechanism.

This Order extends the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 to specified overseas territories with adaptations and modifications set out in Schedules. It revokes the 1986 version of the same Order, serving as an administrative update to enable prisoner transfer arrangements between the UK and its overseas territories.

This is an administrative mechanism enabling legitimate government functions (prisoner transfer between jurisdictions). It does not restrict trade, impose economic regulatory burdens, gold-plate EU directives, or distort market incentives. Prisoner repatriation can aid rehabilitation by allowing individuals to serve sentences nearer support networks. Deletion would impair practical coordination between the UK and overseas territories on penal administration without generating any economic benefit.

This Order extends the United Nations and European Union Financial Sanctions (Linking) Regulations 2017 and regulations made under section 152(1) of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 to UK's overseas territories (listed in the Schedule). It provides modifications for territorial application, substituting UK authorities (Treasury, High Court) with Territory equivalents (Governor, appropriate local court), and sets penalty provisions and expiry rules for Temporary Regulations implementing UN financial sanctions Resolutions.

This Order imposes UK and EU financial sanctions regimes on sovereign overseas territories without their consent, creating compliance burdens on financial institutions and restricting economic freedom. The 120-day auto-expiry mechanism and Governor consent requirements demonstrate the inherently temporary nature of these impositions. While the UK has international obligations under UN Security Council Resolutions, the proper mechanism is for each territory to implement sanctions through its own democratic processes, not via Westminster decree. The Order also prevents territories from competing as financial centers by burdening them with EU-origin sanctions post-Brexit, when they should be free to chart their own economic course.

Amends the Criminal Justice (Sentencing) (Licence Conditions) Order 2015 by: (1) making electronic monitoring conditional ('if required') rather than mandatory in article 4(2)(d); (2) allowing the supervising officer to nominate any person to fulfill requirements in article 4(2)(e); and (3) inserting a new category of licence condition permitting 'restriction of specified conduct or specified acts' in article 7(2)(j).

These amendments represent targeted liberalisation of an existing criminal justice framework, not expansion. The changes actually reduce burden by making electronic monitoring conditional and allowing delegation. Removing this framework would create a vacuum in post-release offender supervision with no alternative mechanism provided, risking public safety with no clear market-based solution to replace it. While licence conditions represent state restriction of liberty, they serve the legitimate function of protecting third parties from convicted offenders' actions — a harm principle justification consistent with classical liberal thought.

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Amends Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, and Universal Credit regulations to: (1) update references from 'Skills Funding' to 'Education and Skills Funding' following an agency rename, (2) define 'traineeship' as a funded course of up to 6 months including training and work experience for 16-25 year olds, and (3) exclude traineeships and certain 'relevant training schemes' from being treated as 'receiving education' for benefit purposes, allowing qualifying young persons to claim Universal Credit while participating.

These amendments remove a barrier to workforce participation by ensuring young people on traineeships can access Universal Credit. Deleting them would force participants to choose between vital benefit support and skills training, harming the most vulnerable. The changes address unintended consequences of existing welfare architecture that treats education as incompatible with benefits—an architectural flaw this single instrument cannot cure without broader reform.

These Regulations (SI 2017/1077) specify the £25,000 threshold amount for criminal offences under sections 106B-106D of the Taxes Management Act 1970 relating to failures to comply with offshore income reporting obligations. They establish calculation methodologies for determining whether the threshold is exceeded, referencing provisions from Schedule 41 of the Finance Act 2008 and Schedule 24 of the Finance Act 2007. The Regulations implement the UK's CRS (Common Reporting Standard) obligations for automatic exchange of financial account information with specified territories.

These regulations operationalise criminal penalties for administrative failures related to offshore tax reporting under the CRS regime. While they set a £25,000 threshold, this figure is arbitrary and the underlying regime represents government surveillance of financial accounts that treats all international financial activity as suspect. The CRS and automatic exchange requirements were originally mandated by EU Directive 2011/16/EU and OECD frameworks, representing exactly the kind of cross-border regulatory harmonisation Better Britain opposes. The compliance burden falls disproportionately on individuals with legitimate international financial interests. Deleting these regulations would force Parliament to reconsider the criminal enforcement mechanism and potentially set a more appropriate threshold through primary legislation, rather than leaving it to delegated legislation that has never received proper democratic scrutiny.