Browse regulations

These Regulations apply and modify company law provisions for Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), including: identity verification requirements for members (equivalent to those for company directors under s.1110A), statements confirming members are not disqualified under directors disqualification legislation, notification duties for changes in LLP membership within 14 days, extension of People with Significant Control (PSC) regulations to LLPs, and criminal offenses for failure to notify. The Regulations apply sections 167G-167L (notification of director/member changes), 12A-12B (statement of initial significant control), and related provisions to LLPs through the 2009 Regulations.

These Regulations mechanically extend company law compliance requirements to LLPs without proper justification for why the LLP structure requires identical treatment. The 14-day notification obligation for every membership change creates significant administrative burden and ongoing compliance costs. Identity verification requirements add friction and cost to LLP formation with no clear benefit over existing verification mechanisms. Criminal penalties for failure to notify (s.167L) are disproportionate for what are essentially administrative filing obligations. LLPs differ fundamentally from companies—members have different liability profiles and the partnership structure has distinct characteristics that make rote application of company law provisions inappropriate. This represents the kind of regulatory accretion that post-Brexit reform should eliminate rather than perpetuate.

The Register of People with Significant Control (Amendment) Regulations 2025 amend the Companies Act 2006 to impose additional notification duties on companies regarding People with Significant Control (PSC). The regulations require companies to notify the registrar of: failures to comply with PSC notices, late compliance with such notices, issuance and withdrawal of restrictions notices, court orders ending restrictions, and changes in PSC information. The amendments also add requirements for notices to state specific dates, names, and confirmation dates, and introduce new duties when previously-stated PSC information becomes inaccurate.

This regulation adds significant new administrative burdens on British companies with no corresponding public benefit adequately demonstrated. The PSC regime already imposes substantial compliance costs; these amendments layer on additional notification requirements (restrictions notices, withdrawal notices, court orders, updated notifications of changed information) that particularly burden small companies. The changes codify what should be matters for private contractual record-keeping into mandatory government reporting with 14-day deadlines. Such prescriptive procedural requirements with no clear anti-corruption dividend—beneficial ownership transparency can be achieved through simpler notification mechanisms—represent the kind of regulatory accretion that drives business to more accommodating jurisdictions. The restrictions notice provisions (requiring court orders to be reported) are especially intrusive with unclear justification.

Consequential regulations accompanying the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, effective November 18, 2025. They restrict public inspection of identity verification statements for directors and establish protections for 'protected individuals' (vulnerable persons whose secured information is already withheld from the Companies Register under the 2016 PSC Regulations).

These provisions protect vulnerable individuals—particularly those who have fled domestic abuse or are at risk of harm—from being located through the Companies Register. Deletion would expose at-risk persons to potential harm and would not restore any competitive advantage or reduce meaningful regulatory burden, as this is a targeted safety mechanism for individuals already granted protection under the 2016 PSC Regulations. The transparency cost is minimal relative to the safety benefit.

Amendment to Wireless Telegraphy (Licence Charges) Regulations 2020 that modifies spectrum access licence charges by: (1) adding 2320-2340 MHz band to Shared Access (Low Power) variable sums; (2) renaming Shared Access (Medium Power) to Shared Access (Medium Power Rural Areas) and adding the new band; (3) inserting a new Shared Access (Medium Power Urban Areas) licence class with tiered fees (£160 per 2x3.3MHz channel in 1800MHz, £160 per 10MHz in 2320-2340/2390-2400MHz, £160 per 10MHz in 3.8-4.2GHz, £80 per 100MHz in 24.45-27.5/40.5-43.5GHz).

Spectrum licensing regimes inherently restrict the natural resource of radio frequencies to favoured incumbents, creating artificial scarcity and barriers to entry for innovative wireless services. While this amendment expands frequency band options, the underlying problem persists: government control over a public resource that should be freely available in a competitive market. The licence fee structure (£160 per channel authorisation) adds compliance costs that are passed to consumers and suppress competition from smaller operators. A truly dynamic wireless market would see spectrum allocated through market mechanisms rather than bureaucratic licensing with prescribed charges.

Statutory instrument authorizing LTE Group to award taught degrees up to bachelor's level in design/creative/performing arts, computing, and business/management for a fixed term (1 Jan 2026 – 31 Dec 2029), limited to enrolled students only.

This regulation grants a government-privileged monopoly on degree-awarding powers to a single entity, LTE Group, restricting competition in higher education. Rather than allowing market forces and independent accreditation to ensure quality, this creates a legislative barrier that excludes other potentially capable institutions from offering degrees. Such licensing regimes raise costs, suppress innovation, and pick winners through political rather than meritocratic processes. Independent quality assurance bodies and institutional reputation provide better mechanisms for maintaining academic standards than government authorization orders.

These Regulations (2025) bring into operation revised codes of practice for Examining Officers and Review Officers under: (1) Schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, and (2) Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000. The regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and enter into force 22 days after being made.

These Regulations merely operationalise codes of practice without substantive Parliamentary scrutiny of the underlying powers. The actual examination powers exist in the parent Acts (Terrorism Act 2000 and Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019) — these 2025 Regulations add no new legal constraints or requirements, only update administrative codes. The revised codes appear to have been 'laid before Parliament in draft' without affirmative vote, representing regulatory content enacted without proper democratic accountability. The regulations should be deleted, with any new codes of practice requiring primary legislation or affirmative Parliamentary approval rather than passive enaction.

A commencement order that brings the Chancel Repair (Church Commissioners' Liability) Measure 2025 into force on 1st October 2025. The underlying Measure modifies liability rules relating to chancel repairs, an archaic area of property law concerning obligations to repair the clergy portion of parish churches.

Chancel repair liability is an anachronistic legal obligation inherited from medieval land tenure arrangements, creating unexpected burdens on property owners who may be unaware of historic liabilities tied to their land. Commencing this Measure perpetuates an outdated regulatory framework that distorts property rights and creates legal uncertainty. The Commencement Order itself has no independent purpose—it merely activates the underlying Measure, so its deletion would prevent the re-entrenchment of this archaic liability regime.

The Hazards in Social Housing (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2025 establish a comprehensive regime for social housing landlords in England to identify, investigate, and remediate significant hazards and emergency hazards affecting social homes. The regulations define 'significant hazard' (risks requiring urgent action but not within 24 hours) and 'emergency hazard' (risks requiring action within 24 hours). They mandate timelines for investigations (24 hours for emergencies, 10 working days for standard investigations), require competent investigators, mandate relevant safety work completion within 5 working days for significant hazards, require temporary rehousing arrangements at no cost to tenants when remediation cannot be completed within initial periods, and impose information-sharing obligations on landlords. The regulations also render void any lease provisions that exclude or limit landlord obligations under section 10A of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985.

These regulations impose substantial compliance costs on social housing providers through rigid 24-hour emergency response timelines, mandatory temporary rehousing at landlord expense, and complex procedural requirements that will increase administrative burdens and ultimately reduce social housing supply. Health and safety concerns in housing are already adequately addressed through the torts of negligence and nuisance, with established landlord liability for breach of repairing obligations. The regulations effectively override freedom of contract between social landlords and tenants, removing flexibility that could allow tailored solutions. The 'no cost to the lessee' rehousing requirement creates an unfunded mandate that will be passed through to other tenants via higher rents or reduced housing availability. While the intent is protective, the regime's rigid timelines and prescribed procedures create compliance box-ticking rather than genuine safety improvements, and the suppression of voluntary contractual arrangements reduces welfare for both parties compared to negotiated solutions.

These Regulations extend electrical safety standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) to the Social Rented Sector, applying to registered providers of social housing. They mandate: (1) electrical installation inspections before tenancy commencement and at intervals no greater than 5 years, (2) new duties for registered providers regarding electrical equipment they provide (checking, records, remediation within 28 days), (3) information sharing with tenants, prospective tenants, and local housing authorities, (4) increased financial penalties up to £40,000, and (5) periodic government reviews of the regulatory provisions.

This regulation imposes substantial compliance costs on social housing providers (inspection fees, administrative burdens, record-keeping) that will be passed through to tenants via higher rents or reduced housing supply. The 5-year mandatory inspection cycle and 28-day remediation deadlines are arbitrary government mandates that ignore market-based solutions: existing liability law, insurance requirements, and tenant choice already create powerful incentives for landlords to maintain safe properties. The penalty escalation to £40,000 and proliferating information-supply duties (to prospective tenants, new tenants, local authorities) add further bureaucratic burdens without clear evidence the mandated outcomes cannot be achieved through less onerous means. The social housing sector already faces significant regulatory constraints; adding electrical inspection regimes risks reducing the supply of affordable social housing.

Designates two voluntary aided schools (Pilgrim's Cross CE Aided Primary School and Nancy Reuben Primary School) as having religious character under Schedule 19 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, specifying Church of England and Orthodox Jewish denominations respectively.

Deletion would strip these schools of their designated religious character, harming parents who deliberately chose faith-based education and undermining educational pluralism. The schools require this designation to provide denominational religious education under the existing SSFA 1998 framework. No compelling case exists that Britons are worse off from this narrow administrative designation.

This Order designates two independent schools (Ealing Fields High School and The Pathfinder Church of England Primary School) as having Church of England religious character, and revokes religious character designations from six other independent schools. It updates schedules in previous Orders from 2003-2004.

This is an administrative designation that creates differential regulatory treatment based on religious denomination. Government designation of religious character confers legitimacy advantages and potential regulatory benefits that distort competition in the education market. Schools can freely conduct themselves according to religious tenets without government designation; the designation merely creates bureaucratic categorization with no clear market failure addressed. The revocation of prior designations shows this is routine list-maintenance that imposes ongoing compliance costs for mere paperwork updates.

Commencement regulation specifying when provisions of the Media Act 2024 take effect. Brings into force on 1st October 2025 certain provisions on independent production quotas and C4C commissioning duties. On 1st January 2026, brings into force extensive provisions including public service remit requirements, OFCOM reporting obligations, programme quotas (independent productions, original productions), regional programme-making rules, BBC/S4C quotas, and financial penalty provisions.

This regulation merely initiates enforcement dates for Media Act 2024 provisions that should never have been enacted. The underlying policy is harmful regardless of commencement date. Quotas for independent and original productions distort media markets and impose compliance costs with no clear consumer benefit. Public service remits represent state control of broadcasting. OFCOM enforcement powers create regulatory burden on broadcasters. Most critically, this regulation triggers financial penalties for non-compliance with these quotas—once active, it will be used to punish broadcasters, entrenching a failed regulatory model. Deleting this commencement regulation prevents the activation of these costly and market-distorting provisions.

These Regulations transfer concurrent housing and regeneration functions from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to Buckinghamshire Council, Surrey County Council, and Warwickshire County Council. The transferred functions include powers to provide housing, regenerate land, acquire land (including compulsory acquisition), deal with infrastructure, dispose of land, and give financial assistance. Local authorities must exercise these powers for improving housing supply, securing regeneration, supporting community creation, and achieving sustainable development and good design. District council consent is required for compulsory acquisition exercises by Surrey and Warwickshire.

This regulation transfers heavy-handed state powers to local bureaucracies without addressing fundamental market failures. Compulsory acquisition powers, disposal restrictions, and government financial assistance distort land markets and benefit politically-connected interests. The vague objectives of 'sustainable development and 'good design' provide cover for NIMBYism and add regulatory friction that worsens Britain's housing crisis. Local authorities already face perverse incentives to restrict housing supply. These functions are better delivered through private property rights, competitive markets, and streamlined planning that eliminates green belt rigidity and arbitrary design mandates.

Amendment to the Iran (Sanctions) (Nuclear) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 that updates UN Security Council resolution references (adding years to resolutions 1737, 1747, 1803, 1929, 2231), modifies designation criteria and purposes, revises missile and nuclear list references, adds a Treasury debt payment exception (37ZZB), and amends Schedule 2 licensing purposes to reflect JCPOA-related provisions.

This amendment perpetuates a sanctions regime that restricts trade with Iran, imposes compliance costs on UK businesses, and distorts market incentives. The Treasury debt exception carves out preferential treatment for certain financial transactions. Deletion would allow the UK to reconsider its approach to Iran sanctions as part of post-Brexit regulatory independence, rather than maintaining inherited EU/UN restrictions that restrict commercial activity and can harm ordinary Iranians through economic isolation.

These Regulations establish the fee structure for wireless telegraphy licences in the 2100 MHz paired frequency band (1920.0-1979.7 MHz and 2110.3-2169.7 MHz). They require licence holders to pay annual charges calculated by formula using a CPI indexation mechanism, with optional 12-month instalment arrangements. Additionally, they mandate a specific payment of £622 per kilohertz due on 4th January 2026, with optional 10-instalment payment plans. The 2021 Regulations are revoked and transitional provisions address outstanding sums.

Spectrum management should be conducted through market mechanisms rather than administrative pricing. These regulations perpetuate OFCOM's monopoly on spectrum allocation via centrally-determined fee formulas rather than competitive auctions that would discover true market prices. The CPI-indexed formula extracts revenue from licensees without ensuring efficient spectrum use, while the £622/kilohertz figure is arbitrary rather than market-derived. This approach drives up costs for telecommunications providers, ultimately harming consumers through higher prices and reduced investment in network infrastructure. True liberalisation would introduce spectrum property rights and secondary trading markets, allowing prices to emerge from voluntary exchange rather than bureaucratic calculation.