Browse regulations

Amends the Child Support (Management of Payments and Arrears) Regulations 2009 to add new conditions (k) and (l) in regulation 13G allowing write-off of small arrears (under £7) where the non-resident parent has made no payments in the preceding 3 months and the maintenance calculation has ceased or jurisdiction is lacking. Consequential amendments to regulations 13H and 13J. Also omits Part 2 of the Child Support Fees Regulations 2014, removing the application fee.

While Better Britain questions government-mandated wealth transfer systems generally, this specific amendment reduces costs and administrative burden: it removes the application fee for child support applications and streamlines write-off of uncollectable small arrears. Deleting these specific amendments would leave the application fee in place and maintain more complex, costly collection processes for negligible amounts. Britons using the child support system would be worse off without the fee removal and simplified arrears handling.

A local government administrative order that realigns district ward boundaries following a 2023 community governance reorganization. It transfers two areas: (1) an area moving from Stonehouse parish/Hardwicke ward to Great Oldbury parish/Severn ward, and (2) an area moving from Standish parish/Hardwicke ward to Great Oldbury parish/Severn ward. The changes take effect for electoral purposes immediately and for all other purposes on the 2024 ordinary day of election.

This is a technical administrative realignment of electoral boundaries that follows logically from the 2023 Reorganisation of Community Governance Order. It imposes no regulatory burden, creates no compliance costs, restricts no market activity, and imposes no supply restrictions. Unlike EU-derived regulations that may have been gold-plated or imposed bureaucratic costs, this is simply ensuring parish boundaries align with district ward boundaries for coherent local governance. Britons would be worse off without it because boundary inconsistencies would create administrative confusion, inefficient service delivery, and unclear electoral representation.

These are the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024, which bring specified provisions of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 into force on various dates (31st January 2024, 12th February 2024, 30th April 2024, and 31st January 2025). They cover: street votes and associated community infrastructure levy powers, alteration of street names, self-build and custom housebuilding duties, hazardous substances consent, biodiversity net gain, compulsory purchase reforms (time limits, vesting dates, data standards, no-scheme principle), powers for local authority regeneration acquisition, and provisions on planning permission prospects. The instrument also contains transitional provisions specifying that certain amendments do not apply to orders/notices published before the commencement dates.

This commencement order activates numerous provisions that collectively expand state intervention in property rights, planning, and land assembly. Street votes create a new community veto over development. Biodiversity net gain requirements add a further regulatory condition to development. Compulsory purchase reforms facilitate easier land acquisition by authorities, infringing property rights. The 'no-scheme' principle modifications and prospects of planning permission provisions distort land compensation. These provisions, inherited from the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, represent central planning philosophy inconsistent with Britain's free-trading heritage. Rather than removing barriers, they create new regulatory mechanisms that will increase costs, delay development, and transfer power from property owners to bureaucrats. Transitional provisions protecting existing cases from reforms demonstrate the harmful scope of the underlying powers.

These Regulations govern the composition of Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal, delegating to the Senior President of Tribunals the power to determine whether tribunals consist of one, two, or three members based on matter complexity and expertise requirements. They also amend the Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules 1993 and Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 to replace references to individual Employment Judges with 'the Tribunal' collective, remove requirements for hearings before a Judge alone, and eliminate the formal distinction between majority and unanimous decisions.

These regulations concentrate discretionary power in the unaccountable position of Senior President of Tribunals without meaningful parliamentary oversight. The broad authority to issue case-specific 'directions' for different classes of matters creates regulatory uncertainty. Replacing specific procedural requirements (full tribunal, Employment Judge decisions) with flexible 'Tribunal' determinations removes clear rules in favor of bureaucratic discretion. As retained EU law never subject to democratic review, the default should be deletion pending replacement with more transparent, accountable procedural frameworks.

This Order amends the Parliamentary Elections and Recall Petition (Welsh Forms) (Amendment) Order 2023 to update transitional provisions regarding proxy voting limits on electoral forms. It extends to England and Wales and comes into force on 30th January 2024. The changes update Form 6, Form 8, Form E, and Form G to reflect new proxy voting rules (allowing proxies to act on behalf of more than four electors, with no more than two being domestic electors) for proxies appointed on or after 31st October 2023. These amendments apply only to elections or recall petitions with specific date parameters (notice published 31 Jan 2024 onwards, poll/signing before 1 May 2024).

This is a transitional, technical amendment that merely updates electoral forms to accurately reflect existing proxy voting rules that were changed in October 2023. It creates no new regulatory burden, imposes no costs on businesses, and does not restrict market activity. Without this amendment, electoral administrators would use outdated forms containing incorrect information about proxy limits, potentially causing confusion at elections. The provisions are narrowly time-bound (applying only to specific election cycles in early 2024) and will become fully spent once those transitional elections conclude. Deletion would produce no economic liberalisation benefit while creating administrative dysfunction in electoral proceedings.

This Order amends the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust (Establishment) Order 1993, extending to England and Wales. It removes the definition of 'community health services' from the interpretation article, replaces the detailed functions article with a simplified general statement that the trust provides goods and services for health service purposes, and changes board composition requirements to exactly 7 non-executive and 5 executive directors.

This regulation exemplifies the micro-management of NHS Trust governance through primary legislation. Requiring by statutory instrument that a hospital trust maintain exactly 7 non-executive and 5 executive directors is classic bureaucratic overreach that should be determined locally by the trust's governing body. While the simplification of the functions article is marginally beneficial, the regulation overall perpetuates the NHS's institutional monopoly by keeping governance structures locked in statute rather than allowing flexibility. The board composition mandates restrict the trust's ability to adapt to its specific operational needs and represent another layer of centralized control over healthcare provision that suppresses private alternatives.

These Regulations amend the Energy Act 2023 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2024 by omitting regulation 3(b), effectively removing a provision from being brought into force. They come into force the day after being made.

This is a minor administrative amendment to commencement orders with no inherent regulatory substance — it simply removes a provision from activation. However, it represents exactly the kind of regulatory fine-tuning without democratic scrutiny that characterises the inherited EU law framework. Commencement regulations are tools of bureaucratic timing, not substantive policy, and their cumulative effect is to layer provisions without proper parliamentary debate. If regulation 3(b) contained anything harmful, removing it is justified; if it contained something useful, it should have been debated as primary legislation, not manipulated via statutory instrument. Either way, this instrument adds nothing to economic dynamism or freedom.

Amendment regulations that update poll card forms and recall petition notice forms to reflect updated proxy voting limits for proxies appointed on or after 31 October 2023, increasing the limit from 2 to 4 proxies (with no more than 2 for domestic electors). These are transitional provisions applying only to elections/referendums with notices published between 31 January 2024 and 1 May 2024.

This regulation imposes no regulatory burden — it is purely a technical amendment to update form text to reflect policy already enacted in the 2023 Regulations. It actually relaxes proxy voting limits from 2 to 4 (with conditions), increases electoral participation capacity, and contains self-limiting sunset provisions tied to specific election dates in early 2024. Deleting it would leave incorrect text on official poll cards, creating confusion rather than liberation.

The Online Safety (List of Overseas Regulators) Regulations 2024 specify six overseas regulatory bodies as recognized counterparts for the purposes of section 114 of the Online Safety Act: France's CSA/Arcom, Netherlands' ACM, Germany's BNetzA, Ireland's Coimisiún na Meán, Australia's eSafety Commissioner, and the European Commission. The regulations enable cross-border regulatory cooperation and information-sharing under the UK Online Safety framework.

Part of the Online Safety Act regime—a broad government intervention in digital communications that creates compliance burdens, liability risks, and regulatory uncertainty for digital platforms. This regulation specifically enables extraterritorial regulatory cooperation that could export these costs internationally. As infrastructure supporting the broader Online Safety framework, it perpetuates regulatory overreach into digital speech and platform operations. The recognition of the EU Commission and foreign regulators facilitates harmonization with EU digital regulation, undermining post-Brexit regulatory independence. The eSafety Commissioner designation exports Australia's problematic speech regulation model. Section 114 cooperation mechanisms create channels for foreign regulatory influence over UK-hosted services without democratic accountability. Rather than reducing regulatory burden, this amplifies it by embedding the UK in an international regulatory network that compounds compliance costs for British digital businesses.

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The Securitisation Regulations 2024 establish a comprehensive UK framework for securitisation, including: designated activity rules for originators, sponsors, lenders and SSPEs; FCA and PRA rule-making powers; an STS (Simple, Transparent and Standardised) securitisation designation and notification regime; securitisation repository registration requirements; and provisions for cross-border recognition of overseas and qualifying EU securitisations. The regulations largely replicate the EU Securitisation Regulation 2017 framework into domestic law following Brexit.

These regulations are a near-wholesale transplantation of EU rules into UK law with no material liberalisation. The STS regime imposes rigid simplicity, transparency and standardisation criteria that restrict commercial freedom. Risk retention requirements mandate that originators hold 5% of securitisation positions regardless of commercial judgment. The extensive notification, reporting and repository requirements impose disproportionate compliance costs that favour large institutions and create barriers to entry. Post-Brexit Britain has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a more competitive securitisation framework that could attract global capital flows away from the EU's more restrictive regime. The regulations suppress market-driven innovation in structured finance by codifying EU-dictated standards that the EU itself is reviewing. Retention of these rules perpetuates the EU's bureaucratic approach rather than restoring Britain's historical role as a beacon of free markets and financial innovation.

This Order establishes pre-emptive action restrictions during the Secretary of State's review of the proposed acquisition of Telegraph Media Group. It prohibits the PIHL Group and Acquiring Entities from taking actions that might prejudice a merger reference under the Enterprise Act 2002, including: changing ownership/control, integrating with other enterprises, making significant organizational changes, removing key staff, or altering corporate structure. The Order requires ongoing compliance reporting, notification of material developments, and encouragement of key staff retention. It came into force on 30th January 2024 and remains in effect until both intervention notices cease to be in force.

Without this Order, the parties could take pre-emptive actions (asset stripping, integration, removal of key staff) that would prejudice the Secretary of State's ability to conduct a proper merger review under the Enterprise Act 2002. While the intervention itself represents government interference in a private transaction, this Order is a procedural safeguard ensuring the statutory review process can function as intended. Deleting it would harm Britons by enabling actions that circumvent democratic regulatory oversight of media ownership, with no mechanism to protect the public interest during the review period.

These Regulations bring into force provisions of the Building Safety Act 2022 on 6th April 2024, including sections on the regulation of building control profession, transfer of approved inspectors' functions to registered building control approvers, and related transitional provisions. They establish transitional arrangements for approved inspectors who had given initial notices before 6th April 2024, including provisions for those who did or did not become suitably qualified approvers before that date, with most transitional arrangements expiring on 1st October 2024.

These regulations are purely transitional machinery for implementing the Building Safety Act 2022 framework, which Parliament has already enacted. Deleting them would create a regulatory vacuum during a critical transition period, leaving building projects in limbo and potentially halting construction activity entirely. The regulations actually facilitate market entry by allowing approved inspectors to transition to the new registered building control approver status, and the October 2024 sunset clause demonstrates a commitment to limited-duration transitional arrangements rather than permanent bureaucracy. Without these transitional provisions, thousands of ongoing building projects would face legal uncertainty regarding their approval status.

These Regulations establish the UK framework for public offers of securities and admissions to trading on regulated markets and primary MTFs, replacing the retained EU Prospectus Regulation post-Brexit. They define 'relevant securities' and 'transferable securities', specify when offers to the public require prospectus disclosure, create designated activities under FSMA 2000, and empower the FCA to make regulated market admission rules and primary MTF rules. Key features include exemptions for offers under £1 million threshold, various excluded securities categories, and provisions for MTF admission prospectuses.

This regulation, despite being a post-Brexit replacement for the EU Prospectus Regulation, still imposes substantial regulatory burdens that impede capital formation. The requirement for FCA-approved prospectuses, the broad definition of 'advertisement' capturing many communications, the 12-month aggregation of offerings, and ongoing obligations for admitted securities create significant compliance costs that deter smaller companies from accessing public markets. While the £1 million threshold provides some relief for smaller offerings, the overall framework remains weighted toward large established issuers and contains the same fundamental flaw as its EU predecessor: imposing disclosure requirements and regulatory approvals that raise the cost of capital-raising without demonstrating that the benefits to investors justify these costs. A truly free-market approach would allow securities offerings based on issuer discretion and market forces rather than regulatory gatekeeping.

Civil Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2024 amending the Civil Procedure Rules 1998, covering technical corrections to cross-references, changes to case management directions for fast/intermediate tracks, 20-page limit on expert reports, new rule 45.15A on company restoration proceedings fixed costs, amendments to costs rules including new Table 15A, judicial review procedure changes including Public Service Obligations in Transport Regulations 2023, new rule 54.8A on replies to acknowledgments of service, and penal notice requirement modifications.

This instrument expands regulatory complexity rather than reducing it. The new rule 45.15A creates another category of fixed costs for company restoration proceedings, codifying expenses that should be proportionate to the actual work done. The arbitrary 20-page limit on expert reports risks suppressing thorough expert analysis in complex cases, particularly clinical negligence disputes where nuance matters. Embedding the Public Service Obligations in Transport Regulations 2023 into CPR creates regulatory interdependency that constrains future reform. New procedural requirements for judicial review replies add layers without clear justification. These changes overall increase compliance burden, create new categories of standardised costs, and add procedural steps where simplification was needed post-Brexit.